LeNoah's Zombie Island
by The Kobold Necromancer
Summary: Due to the TDWT finale, everyone washed up on another island, Noah and Leshawna separated. But when one thinks the day can't worse, a virus outbreak has run amok, and it's made victims hungry... very hungry... for brains... cuz they're zombies, you see... and not everyone can cope with that kind of danger as well as others...
1. Total Drama Outbreak

**Disclaimer** - All rights belong to Teletoon, Cartoon Network, and the creators of TDI and TDA. No profit is being made in the making of the fanfiction. This alternate-universe episode of TDI contains stunts performed by written teens. Do not try any of this at home.

**TKN's Message** - This story is due to a trade-off of art and writing between myself and Cuttie Art Girl (visit her profile on Deviant Art, I demand you all). This is also perfect for me to shake the writer's block I have on my novel. I work on fanfiction and my novel simultaneously. So please enjoy, we all love zombies and action and more fun things!

Oh, and fair warning. If you are a Duncan, Alejandro, or Chris fan, you are seriously not going to like this story. That's not to say they are assured to die, they are just going to be villains. Sorry, Winter.

**Pairings** - Main pairing is Leshawna/Noah. There are several side pairings, but to reveal them would be to spoil who survives, as they would need time to pair up. The couples were suggested by Cuttie Art Girl.

**Rating** - Rated M for extreme violence, character death, and zombie attacks. Also, romance and nudity and kissing. You decide which is more scarring.

* * *

><p>…<p>

**Chapter 01** - Unnatural Natural Disasters

…

* * *

><p>Noah hated water. Oh sure, he liked to drink it, but he hated being immersed in it. He hated swimming, it was too physically tiring. Most of all, he hated swimming with others.<p>

Wasn't he in luck swimming in dangerous waters with twenty-six panicked people?

"We're all gonna die," Beth screamed in terror, thrashing around. "We're gonna burn up and drown!"

"Where's my money?" Heather shrieked, pumping her fists. "Where's the suitcase full of money? Chris Maclean still had it, where'd it go?"

"Help," Owen shouted, "I'm drowning, and I'm getting all wet too!"

Noah growled in frustration as he looked back at the small Hawaiian island that Chris had picked for the finale of Total Drama World Tour. How he had wished he had just been allowed to leave when that started. Honestly, who would want to watch a showdown between the mean-spirited, immoral witch known as Heather, and the manipulative, womanizing jackass known as Alejandro? Two villains competing meant one villain winning, and that was more than Noah wanted to see, like a trolling hacker in an online game winning a championship.

Noah was now more concerned about himself right now, rather than those two. People were panicking all around him, the water and air was hot, and he wasn't the physical type. Everyone had retreated into the ocean the moment the volcano started to make funny noises after Heather had thrown the dummy into the lava, and the natives warned them of a pineapple-induced eruption.

Now everyone, even the lousy host and co-host, were there, as their own had sunk from flaming lava rocks from the volcano. It would have been neat to see, like a powerful spell from a fantasy game, if he weren't within burning, crushing range.

"_Where on Earth was help?_" he thought as he thrashed in the water. He saw Cody was carrying Sierra, who was still too injured to walk, and in this case swim, on her own. "_Does Hawaii not have a rescue team? Or did Chris Maclean dismiss all help for the sake of drama?_

"_He_ did_ make them compete around real lava_," he thought bitterly as he looked at the host, who was screaming about his hair being ruined. Hatred and frustration began to broil in Noah, like a terrible losing streak online could do; however, this was real. Chris Maclean was the reason they were all in this position.

And Noah wasn't the only one thinking this. Leshawna had swum over to Chris, and was now shaking him by the lapels. "You moron," she hollered, heard over all the panicked shouting. "You stupid bastard, you freaking idiot!"

"_Don't hold back, Leshawna_," Noah thought, allowing himself some satisfaction for this, "_tell him how you really feel!_"

"The one thing in the world that would agitate a volcano, and you make it part of the challenge? We're in this mess because of you, Chris!"

"Let go of me, you hippo," Chris shouted in return, trying to wrench Leshawna's hands from his designer clothing.

Noah chuckled as he watched them fight, then he felt the water churn aggressively. He looked around, trying to see what was going on, and started to feel panic creep up on him. The air was starting to smell like ash, the heat from the lava coming from the volcano blazing on his skin. He could see the island being coated in lava, burning up the stands they had been sitting in a hour ago.

"All this," Leshawna continued to shout, "because you couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the _one_ detail on volcanos! Gimme a reason, Chris, gimme a reason why I shouldn't snap your scrawny neck right now."

As much as Noah enjoyed this, the churning sea was worrying him too much. He then saw something that looked more beautiful than anything in the world: a life preserver.

"Thank you, sweet merciful God," he said as he seized it. Rope was still attached to it, rope from Chris's boat. Part of Noah was wondering what he should do, the other part wondering how he could hide the life preserver from the others.

The water seemed to thrust him towards Leshawna and Chris, and the life preserver caught the host in the side of the head. After Chris sputtered angrily, he realized what had hit him, what Noah was holding.

"That's mine," Chris shouted, grabbing ahold of it, trying to rip it out of Noah's hands. "Give me that, I'm the host! I get this, or I swear I'll kill-"

"Shut up," Leshawna said as she grabbed the host's shoulders and yanked him back. "You ain't gonna take that from him! We just need to keep our heads on our shoulders, and then we'll-"

A bloodcurdling scream startled all of them, coming from Lindsay. She was pointing towards the island, but right now, it was being obstructed by a rather large wave, formed by a boulder crashing into the water, coming at them.

"Well, just when you think things can't get worse," Noah said. He was starting to see his life flash before his eyes, and everything in his chest and stomach tightened.

At that moment, he was sure he was gonna die. And the one responsible was trying to steal the floatation device he had again.

Leshawna had frozen up when she saw the wave coming at them, then she heard someone calling her name. Gwen was swimming towards her, looking as scared as Leshawna was. The goth girl seized her best friend's hand, holding onto her, panicked whimpering escaping from her green lips.

"Just hold on, sugar," Leshawna told her friend. "Hold on, we won't let this end us! We've survived worse!"

Gwen nodded frantically, glancing over at the giant wave rushing at them. Leshawna held her friend, and then something was pushed onto her shoulders. She was blinded for a few seconds, then it was forced down her arms and helped her stay afloat.

Noah, holding onto the rope that was tied around the life preserver, stared at her as she looked over at him after he had jammed it on her. They didn't say anything, Gwen didn't either, they only had a second before the wave finally hit them.

Leshawna could only feel rushing water, knocking the wind out of her, keeping her under. She could feel Gwen holding onto her arm, but she couldn't even see her best friend. The water was hot, uncomfortably so.

When her lungs felt like they were going to burst, she resurfaced, mostly thanks to the life preserver. Another wave crashed into them, knocking them under. When they resurfaced, a third and then a fourth, unrelenting and spinning Leshawna around so much that she didn't know which way was up anymore.

As the waves crashed into them, she felt Gwen yanked away from her. She reached out, fighting the rushing water, but she was gone. Leshawna felt herself screaming inside, because she couldn't underwater.

The waves kept coming, she didn't even see the others anymore. She started feeling woozy, blacking out…

* * *

><p>The next thing Leshawna remembered, she was sitting in wet sand. Not sitting up, sitting down in a resting position. She blinked a few times, trying to steady herself. But as far as she could remember, one second she was a pinball, underwater as the waves continued to crash, and the next second, she was sitting on a beach.<p>

She looked out at the water, on the horizon. The sky was crimson in the distance, like something from an apocalyptic movie. As zonked as she was, she could feel herself drained even more by the sight.

Leshawna felt barely able to breathe from exhaustion, an irony that didn't dawn on her until she started to breathe normally. Her limbs felt like they were full of lead, her head still swimming. As much as she tried to think about it, the last few minutes of a volcano erupting, tidal waves, and washing up on a beach seemed like something from a bad action movie, or some kind of cartoon.

"Leshawna, keep yourself together," she said to herself. "You managed to stay in one piece, you just need to carry on."

"Right on, sister."

She flinched at the voice, and looked over to see Noah, sprawled out on his back. He looked even more worn out than she did, barely moving his mouth when he talked. "Now can I get an amen?" he added.

"None of your lip," she spat. "Things are bad enough, I don't need Noah the Turkey rearing his head."

"I will not rear anything. I will not do anything, I am more than happy to lie here and let death take me."

"Do not talk like that, do you hear me?" Leshawna snapped. She had meant to shout it, but somehow she couldn't will her voice to go anything over slightly raised voice. "Just… don't."

"All right, Leshawna, you go it."

She got to her feet, and walked over to him. "We ain't gonna get anywhere lying here, let's start looking." She reached down for his hand to pull him up.

"No thanks, like I said, I want to lie down here for a month or two-aaaaAAUGH!"

Noah's scream of pain as she pulled on his hand made her drop him immediately. He sat up, clutching his palm, and Leshawna caught a glimpse of his palm. It was marked with rope burn, badly too.

"Are you satisfied?" he growled as he hissed from the pain. "I'm ready to conquer the world! Kratos, move over, I'm going on a warpath instead of you!"

"I'm… I'm sorry."

"Oh hell, I can't complain so much, it's only because of you that I'm alive and have these burns," he muttered, managing to stand up now. "Hadn't been for you, I'm sure I would have drowned; physical fitness isn't my thing."

"Listen, Noah, you were the one to jam the life preserver on me, and I don't know why, but… wait! Gwen! The others!"

She looked up and down the beach, scanning everyone. No sign of anyone else was around, nobody at all except her and Noah. Leshawna was starting to hyperventilate as she thought of all of her friends: Gwen, Bridgette, Harold, DJ, Tyler, Beth, Trent, Lindsay, and Owen. Even all the others, those that she didn't know well or didn't get along with, she felt herself worrying about them.

She started to run down the beach, calling out their names. Noah, watching her in incredulous belief that was running after all that, started to follow, shouting, "Listen, Super Woman, you can't save anyone! Have you noticed we're in a little bit of a tough spot ourselves?"

Leshawna didn't hear him, her mind racing with horrible thoughts of what happened to the others. She thought of Chris Maclean again, and growled in hatred. She continued to call out for them in increasing desperation. "Gwen! Gwen, where are you, girl? Harold baby, you better be all right! Bridgette! Beth! Tyler!"

"This was only supposed to be a half-hour finale," Noah grumbled as he tried to follow her. "How did I get stuck with the woman who has less mercy than the natural disasters I just faced? Why does life hate me so? Oh, now I'm ranting to myself, I'm really starting to hate you back, life-"

During mid-curse, he tripped over something and fell flat on his face in the sand. Leshawna stopped calling out and hurried back to him, trying to help him up. He merely flopped onto his side and groaned, his feet resting on what he had tripped over: a length of pipe that had been on the boat, more than likely.

"It's nice here," he moaned, staring up at the sky. Leshawna mentally smiled at how ridiculous he looked, with sand all over his face and body. "Just let me lie here, nothing looks so much more pretty."

"Referring to me, turkey boy?" she joked, then shook his shoulder. "Come on, get up, we have to look for our friends."

"No, don't wanna."

"Listen Noah, I'm the oldest over four siblings, you ain't gonna win arguing with me."

"Ha! I am the youngest of nine siblings, I have built-up immunity to older siblings!"

"Do you have to argue with me, turkey boy?"

"Again, I refer to being youngest of nine. The family was only quiet when we were all asleep, and not so with some of my siblings with how loud they snore… I had to wear earplugs when I was asleep. Of course, I tried to wear them awake, but Mom didn't like that-"

"Noah," Leshawna shouted, shaking his shoulders more, "focus! We have a huge issue on our hands! Our friends?"

"What friends?"

"Oh, don't you dare go down that route with me, Noah! You have friends among the others! What about Owen?"

"Owen," Noah said, sounding lucid by this point, staring up at the sky, "nice guy. Broke my arm in the Yukon, knocked me off Niagara Falls and got me eliminated, let Alejandro hypnotize him…"

"Okay, I can deal with this, at least you are remembering something," she muttered. "Go on, what about the others? You have to like others."

"Annoying Sadie and Katie," he mumbled. "High-pitched, squealing fangirls. Katie's cute, likes Trent. Sadie's all right, likes someone else, don't care who."

"Go on! Come on, wasn't there a girl you liked secretly or something?"

"There was," Noah mumbled, staring up at the sky. The light blue sky that remained despite the red horror in the distance reminded the bookworm. "There was Bridgette. Smart, pretty… any guy would be happy to have her. She never noticed me."

"Oh come on now. Now I know you're a little out of it, you're putting yourself down?"

"She and Geoff broke up over Alejandro's treachery," he continued. "She apologized repeatedly, but he was deluded with fame again… he wasn't good for her anyway."

"Yes, well, let's not speak ill of Geoff, he's a good guy deep down, and I don't want anything to happen to him, even if he did hurt my girl."

"Don't know how anyone survived all that, don't know how we did. Maybe Iron Woman and Crazy Girl…"

"If you survived, any of them could."

"Only because of you."

"And I only survived thanks to you."

Leshawna and Noah stared at each other for a few seconds. There was something that Leshawna wanted to ask him, but couldn't find it in her to ask right now. Currently, she was thinking his eyes were actually quite friendly when they weren't rolling or giving that cynical look he was known for.

Noah was also thinking too that Leshawna had nice eyes. He had always thought, secretly, that a girl could really be known by her eyes; Leshawna had those kind of eyes that let you know how competent and strong she was, but still vulnerable and emotional.

"_This is getting unrealistically mushy_," he thought, then broke eye contact. "Um, I'm feeling much better now, head's steady."

"Good, that's good," Leshawna muttered. "Listen, we gotta go find them, who knows what could be happening to them?"

"What are you talking about?" Noah asked as he sat up. "You think there is something else to worry about besides the volcano, and the waves, and the idea that Chris fired all the lifeguards to save money for his hair gel?"

"You let me think about how I'm going to kill Chris. But remember those reports of a mysterious virus around Hawaii and California?"

"I heard reports were coming in from Mexico and Oregon too. You raised hell over that with Chris."

"Well, I told him we shouldn't do a show's finale on an island that was having a viral outbreak of some kind, but no! He said the money was too good, that the governor or whatever was paying excellent money for good publicity over Hawaii!"

"And we ended up filming one of their islands melting under lava. What wonderful irony, don't you think?"

"It's not funny to me, Noah."

"Do I mess with your coping mechanics? Don't mess with mine."

"Yeah, well, I had a lot to do when waiting for that dumb finale to start, and all I could hear from the people on that island was the trouble that virus outbreak was causing. They kept saying we should all leave the island."

"Well, we did."

"We don't know if this island is any safer! Last thing we need is to be sick as well as lost and without food or water."

Noah finally brushed the sand off his face with the back of his hand. "Okay okay, I get the crisis." He looked back into the mainland, which looked like the classic lost-on-an-island setting to him: sand for a few yards, then tall trees thick enough to obstruct any sight into the island. No sign of human life at all, and in fact, very little sound over the waves coming in.

"Just give me a couple minutes," Noah muttered. "I just want to try to push away the thoughts of doom, flashes of _Madagascar_, _Cast Away_, and _Dead Island._"

"We won't have any singing lemurs, you don't need a volleyball because you got me, and… what was the last one? Some kind of horror movie?"

"No, game, video game. Zombie-infested paradise."

"Oh, how fun. You trying to scare me now?"

In the woods, far away but still able to be heard, there was some kind of shriek, an animal of some kind. The two couldn't tell what it was, but it sounded like terror over anything, and when another scream was let out, it was cut off suddenly. Though far away, it sent shivers up their spines.

"I am most certainly not trying to scare you," Noah muttered, looking at Leshawna with fearful eyes, "but I think life is."

* * *

><p>Another part of the island was also full of fear, panic, attempted reason, and hunger (well, the last one was just Owen).<p>

"Where's Katie?" Sadie was screaming, running around the contestants on the beach. "I can't find her!"

"Great Flotsam and Jetsam," Owen hollered, wading onto the shore and carrying the bandaged Blaineley on his shoulder. "I think I wet myself back there, but I really can't be sure! Did the water get warm for any of you?"

"This is like the opening of Lost," Cody muttered to himself, hacking and coughing up sea water and kelp that had been caught in his mouth. Sierra, on his back, plucked sea weed off him as well.

All of the others had washed up the shore, most panicked but some still keeping their heads on them. Lindsay desperately tried to calm down DJ, who couldn't stop whimpering. Tyler helped Trent and Justin make it to the shore, both so tired that they could barely stand. Izzy and Eva were helping out Chef, who was unconscious.

Harold, who was desperately looking for Leshawna, came across Courtney, who was barely conscious and holding onto a piece of the destroyed boat. He helped her to the shore, trying desperately to get her breathing again. With his CPR training, he performed the steps perfectly, using the process to keep himself calm.

Finally, she spat sea water out in his face, blinking and coughing. Still sore and exhausted, she could barely move, but did see Harold kneeling over him. "Wh-where are we?"

"I don't think we know," Harold said. "Just stay here, try not to move much, I've got to go help the others."

Courtney watched, amazed, as Harold sprinted back to the water, helping a struggling Heather out of the water. When the queen bee furiously shoved Harold into the water as he tried to guide her, Courtney felt the utmost hatred for her.

Chris was also being a pain, shoving Geoff out of his way to get to shore. "Way to go, you bunch of little, rotten bastards," he shouted, all cool demeanor gone completely. "You ruined everything, and I almost drowned! I'll get you all for this, you'll never appear on another show! I'll get a bunch of new teens next season, just to prove you're not worth shi-"

"Shut up," Gwen shouted from behind him, knocking him over. She hurried onto shore, crying out, "Has anyone seen Duncan? Leshawna?"

No one answered her. The goth girl looked around desperately, trying to find her best friend. As she did so, she literally ran into Bridgette, who was heading over to Geoff. Both winced from the pain, then frantically checked to see if their friend was okay. They locked in a relieved hug, just happy the other was fine.

"Are you okay?" Bridgette asked when they pulled apart. "Are you not hurt?"

"I'm fine, just fine!"

"Gwen!"

Trent was running over to them, kicking up sand in his haste. "Thank goodness, you both are still all right!"

"We're fine, yes," Gwen said, managing a smile for her caring ex. Bridgette smiled a little too, but when she heard someone screaming out in the water, her lifeguard days kicked in and she immediately ran back into the water. Trent and Gwen watched her go, then looked back at each other.

"Have you seen Leshawna? Or Duncan?"

Trent shook his head, then a shout from the water alerted both their attention. Duncan was cursing at Harold, pushing him away as he said something about the nerd not touching him. Gwen bolted for her boyfriend and hugged him as he waded out of the water.

"I'm all right, babe," he assured her as she looked him over.

"Are you sure? I was so worried, not everyone has shown up yet, and… and…"

"If they're alive, they will be here. Dear God, your eyes are bleeding."

Gwen froze at this and tentatively touched around her eyes. They came back slick with a substance other than water, but it wasn't blood. It was her eyeshadow, almost all gone but leaving streaks on her face.

She immediately hit Duncan's arm, to which he laughed and tried to hug her, but she was too distraught still. Gwen started looking around everyone gathering around the beach, and the lack of her best friend made her start feeling panic again.

"Where's Leshawna?" she called out. "Has anyone seen Leshawna? Oh God, Leshawna!"

She called out her friend's name, running on wobbling legs, her voice even more raspy. She looked into the ocean, but all she could see was Harold, Bridgette, and Sadie helping Katie out of the water. Gwen felt her head spin something fierce, and she collapsed on the beach.

Several minutes went by as the cast of Total Drama tried to recover from being in the most cataclysmic any of them had ever experienced. Everyone was asking where they were, but no one truly knew except just another island of Hawaii.

Lindsay and Beth were trying to comfort DJ still. Tyler was helping Sadie with making Katie comfortable. Harold and Bridgette were tending to Courtney, while Cody and Owen tried to help Blaineley and Sierra. Izzy was observing Chef Hatchet, her combat rival, respected nonetheless.

Though people were still hysteric, Bridgette and Harold were the most collected. They were the only ones with experience in life-or-death situations, Bridgette having been a lifeguard and Harold's time in the Possum Scouts.

"Okay, everyone's cold and wet, and we don't know where civilization is," Bridgette summed up how royally screwed they were. "I think the first thing we should do is build a large fire, and then decide who should walk the shoreline to see if there is an outpost."

"Maybe we're lucky," Harold said, managing a small smile, "and there is a tropic resort right around the corner."

"They probably would have evacuated," Bridgette said, "what with the volcano eruption from the next island." She shook her head and muttered, "I'm sorry, I'm rambling; my head is not where it is."

"You never did know where your head was at."

Both of them looked over at Alejandro, who was glaring at the two of them. The handsome manipulator looked between them, then stared down Bridgette. "Look you two, no one is going anywhere; we are staying right here and waiting for rescue."

"You don't make that call, Al," Harold retorted.

"Don't call me that," Alejandro screamed, startling them both. Bridgette almost grabbed Harold's arm, but managed to stand up for herself as she glared right back at the handsome teen.

"Just calm down," she told him. "We are all under stress, we just need to focus now. So please, just-"

"Like I've said, I don't trust you, you stupid, blond whore," Alejandro spat, glaring her down. "You can't help us, we aren't going to listen to-"

Harold shoved Alejandro, hard. The Latin teen recovered and balled up his fist, intending to smash Harold's face. His wrist was grabbed by Trent, who stared down Alejandro. "Dude, let it go," the musician hissed. "Turn around, walk away, and leave them alone."

Yanking his hand away from Trent, Alejandro stomped off, grumbling. Bridgette sighed and looked at Harold and Trent. "I know I should hate him… he's immoral and sinister, but he just lost a million dollars, almost killed-"

"So have all of us, Bridgette," Trent said. "Don't give him any excuse, he doesn't have any right to call you that."

"Right," Harold said. "Now we need to make a fire. Why don't you two do that?"

"Alright, what are you going to do, Harold?" Bridgette asked her friend.

"I still don't see Leshawna. I'm going to take a look around for her, maybe she drifted further. It's really worrying me that I cannot find her…"

* * *

><p>Leshawna was worried too, but more about Noah. The cynic had collapsed again, lying on the beach and staring up at the sky, muttering how much he wanted to just let the tide wash him away.<p>

"Please, just let life finish me off," he said to her. "Life has always hated me, I may as well get it to stop by giving in."

"You stop that talk right now, Turkey," she spat, kneeling down next to him.

"Leshawna," he said, glancing over at you, "I'm too tired to come up with a response to that. My head hurts so much…"

She stared at him, then felt his head. A bump and a small cut were in his hair, which made her immediately nervous. "_He might have a small concussion,_" she thought. "_That's why he keeps fading on me like this_."

"Noah, I need you to concentrate," she said. "Talk to me. Um… tell me about home."

"I… I spent all of it in my room, doing homework or computer games."

"You never left the room to be with family?"

"Does dinner count?"

Leshawna shook her head. "How can you be so cynical about family? They're… family!"

"I'm the runt of the litter, remember? They only noticed me if I was bleeding from the ears."

"Stop that, think of something else. Think of the show, tell me what you remember!"

"I remember," he said, squinting hard, "I remember the finale was between Alejandro and Heather, after they eliminated Cody. I wanted to go home, I didn't care to see them compete. Cared less about their so-called romance, cared even less about Heather winning."

"Try something positive."

"I remember Duncan and Gwen fell for each other."

"That hurt Courtney!"

"Two for one, I'm working happy here!"

Leshawna strained in frustration, grabbing the length of pipe and using it as a walking stick as she paced around. She couldn't stand waiting around like this, but she couldn't leave Noah like this. Taking a deep breath, she headed back to him.

"What else do you remember? Relationships?"

"Were there any good ones?" Noah muttered. "Lindsay and Tyler never hooked up after she forgot him, Owen and Izzy broke up, Geoff dumped Bridgette even though that one kiss was an accident, you and Harold never hooked up-"

"Your talk of love is really depressing me! Will you stop?"

"What can I say? I hated this season, I hated being on it, and the only real love I saw was Sierra trying to remove Cody's underwear when he was asleep."

"Noah, we ain't going anywhere until you talk about something positive!"

There was silence for half a minute. Noah looked at Leshawna the whole time, staring into those brown eyes of hers. He knew no matter how stubborn he could be, she could be much more stubborn. It was a very admirable characteristic to him, if it wasn't always used when arguing with him, he might have found it attractive.

"Well," Noah said, "positive… positive… Ezekiel turned into a monster and fell in the volcano-"

"How is that positive?" she shouted.

He flinched, and added, "He didn't suffer?"

"You don't know if he's dead! I swear I saw him get blown out of it before he hit the lava."

"There you go, something positive."

"I said that, not you!"

The two stared at each other, then, despite everything, despite their argument, they both burst into laughter. Leshawna felt her sides hurt as she guffawed, Noah sat up as he cackled. After a minute of this insanity, they looked at each other.

"This has seriously been one f'ed up season, hasn't it?" Leshawna said.

"Don't you know it," Noah replied. As he sat up, he said, "Well, if I have to say something positive, neither Heather or Alejandro earned the money. All their scheming and back-stabbing and evil plans were for naught, they didn't get squat."

"Cute rhyme."

Noah chuckled as he slowly stood up, Leshawna handing him the pipe. She picked up the life saver, as well as a long plank of broken wood from the shipwreck. "Well, we got our walking sticks, are you ready to traverse the beach to find our friends?"

"Guess so. Then we'll get off this island, fly off on Rainbow Dash, and visit the Magical World of Ponies!"

"Noah, don't tell me you're a Brony!"

"My sisters love the show, I know more about it than any guy should… except that there are many guys who know more than they should. I wonder if it's still considered weird to like a kid's show so much?"

Leshawna chuckled as they walked. "You're not so difficult to talk to when you're not trying to be a creep."

"I don't try to be a creep, I'm just myself!"

"Listen Noah, if you want to-"

Some rustling in the jungle startled them, it was loud and sudden, like something had fallen. Both exchanged glances, silent with apprehension.

"Wait, why are we scared?" Noah said.

"Probably because you brought up the zombie island video game!"

"You brought up the very real disease on the Hawaiian islands!"

"We're both being ridiculous, how about that?"

"Sounds fair to me."

They both turned to the jungle, walking slowly towards it. "Hello?" Leshawna called out. "Is someone out there?"

"We're shipwrecked survivors from a reality show," Noah called out. "I know that sounds incredulous, but you really cannot make this stuff up!"

"Come on, is someone there?"

More falling and crashing sounds deep in the jungle were their reply. Noah and Leshawna exchanged glances again, and then he asked, "If a survivor calls out for help, and no one is around to hear him, does he still make noise?"

"Noah, you're crazy," she responded, chuckling a little. "Don't make me hit you, though… for some reason, I got a real bad feeling!"

"So do I. Look, it's probably an animal or something, let's keep going."

The two continued to walk down the beach, slow and talking between the two of each other. They didn't see something crawling towards the edge of the jungle, on horribly mangled legs but undaunted as it reached forward. Its sharp, bloodstained teeth gleamed like the red sky.

* * *

><p>"So what are we going to do?" Katie asked Sadie. "We're horribly lost!"<p>

"I have no idea what we're going to do," Sadie admitted to Katie. "We might have to forage for food and drink distilled pee like in that bad movie we watched late at night once!"

"Ew, I don't want to drink pee!"

"Me neither! Do you think we'll have to do that?"

"Will you two knock it off?" Eva snarled. "I swear, being marooned with you two is worse than any other fate."

"Eva, lay off," Tyler snapped. "Come on, we're all stressed, you don't need to attack the two."

The contestants and cast of Total Drama were huddled around three large fires that Harold, Bridgette, and Trent had built. Everyone was enjoying the warmth, but still worried. Several of them had gone down the beach, both ways, for about an hour, and hadn't found any sign of civilization. They had come back to where they had all stopped, and made fires as night was coming.

Dusk was a dark, malevolent purple, the void of the night sky mixed with the distant volcanic eruption. Some of the teens were worried, they heard roaring or growling, but had settled that it must have been the distant volcano.

"All we need is a smoke monster and a bald guy with a knife collection," Cody was saying to Sierra. "Do you think Chef has some knives?"

"I have knives," Izzy told him. "Not on me, I mean, it would be cool to carry a bunch of knives, but they're cold and I like warm things on my body."

Cody tried to convince himself that that wasn't a flirt, but he couldn't help but notice the redhead winked at him. Sierra pulled Cody a little closer to her, but sounded neutral when she asked, "Izzy, what do you think we're gonna do for food?"

"Food?" Geoff, who was nearby, asked in a huff. "It's only been a few hours, why is everyone so frantic? Can't we just realize now that the coast guard or whatever will see the fires and come pick us up?"

"No need to snap at us, jeepers," Sierra muttered.

"Ignore him," Izzy said. "Bridgette tried to talk to him, and he was being a real jerk."

Geoff glared at her, but felt deep down, she was right. He looked away from his fireside companions to the third fire, where his ex was sitting. Bridgette was between Trent and Courtney, and he felt a small pang of regret, but he still had his pride.

"I don't know why you tried talking to him again," Courtney said to Bridgette. "He's being a real jerk, shipwreck notwithstanding."

"I can't help it," Bridgette admitted miserably. "I just thought he would… that after all this, he would realize that fame and popularity aren't what it's all about!" She buried her face in her hands, taking deep breaths. "I'm so pathetic."

"Bridgette, stop blaming yourself," Trent said. "You really have been too hard on yourself. You felt guilty when Alejandro kissed you in surprise."

"That's right," Courtney said. "He kissed you, not the other way. He froze your ponytail to the pole, that's why you were eliminated."

Bridgette sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know what to think about right now… I am just scared and emotional, I guess."

"Perfectly understandable," Trent said. "Plus, we haven't found Noah or Leshawna yet."

"I know." The surfer girl looked over at Harold, who was going from person to person, asking if they had seen Leshawna or Noah. No one but Gwen had any information, and she was so zonked that she had curled up with Duncan by the fire.

The punk had glared at anyone who dared to look at them, challenging them to bring up again how their relationship had started over Courtney's broken heart. He pulled her closer when Harold walked by, frowning darkly and then staring in the fire.

"I cannot stand this," Duncan muttered to her. "We escape all that hell, and they're still giving us shit. You'd think they'd have priorities."

"They're frustrated and want to lash out," Gwen muttered against his chest, snuggling to get closer. "Just ignore them…"

"Your so-called friends are among them."

"They're still my friends, Duncan," she protested, frowning at him. She glanced over at Bridgette, Trent, and Courtney, then sighed. "At least, I hope they are. I know Courtney will never forgive me, but-"

"Forget Courtney, forget all of them. You don't need them."

"Dude!" DJ, who had recovered and was sitting near them, spoke up. "Have a little respect. We all need to stick together."

"Alejandro's talking about leaving camp," Justin said, trying to style his gorgeous hair. "I don't know about you, but if he does, I'm going with him."

"But you can't," Beth exclaimed. "Alejandro doesn't know what he's doing!"

"No one does, Beth. Not Chris, not Chef, not you or me, no one does. But I'll be damned if I stay sitting here, the beach sucks. It's good for posing for sexy movies, but the sand gets everywhere and it's coarse and rough…"

"Yeah, thanks for that," Duncan grumbled. "But for once, I gotta agree with you, pretty boy. Me and Gwen are leaving here if others are."

Before Gwen could say how she didn't want to do that, an outraged cry from Heather alerted them all. "Damn it, Chris," she was shouting, "what do you mean the coast guard won't be looking for us?"

"It's because of that disease outbreak on the islands, the boats are mostly for emergency evacuation," Chris snapped right back. "Look, don't worry, I'm sure when they realize the island was overflown with lava, they'll send someone around."

"To circle that island, maybe, but what about here?"

"Heather, chill yourself, okay? I'm an A-list celebrity, they're going to look for me like crazy; you all are lucky I am here."

"It's because of you we are here," Eva shouted, storming over to him. She was about ready to strangle Chris, but Chef stood in the way. She continued to shout, "We ought to throw you in the fire to keep it going!"

"Chris wood makes the best wood," Izzy agreed.

"Burn the witch," Owen shouted, not sure what he was agreeing on.

"Everyone stop!" Bridgette cried out, standing up. "Please, just calm down!"

"Calm down?" Alejandro snapped back. "How are we supposed to calm down?"

"Don't you start on her again," Trent shouted.

"Then I will," Heather hollered, walking over to Bridgette. "We are lost on an island, no food or water, no shelter, no immediate help, and you think we're all going to sit around and sing at the campfire, you surfer bimbo?"

"Heather, shut up," Gwen called out, pulling herself away from Duncan. "Stop ragging on Bridgette, she's not at fault here."

"I don't need to be lectured by you!"

The two rivals rounded on each other, with Bridgette trying to get in-between. Heather pointed at Gwen, continuing. "You cheated on your friend with her boyfriend on live television! And now you're going to lecture me on blame? That's a laugh!"

"This is a completely different situation," Gwen shouted back, but felt some blushing of shame come to her pale face. "We don't need to fight or argue here!"

"Oh, I think we do! Some of you losers want to just stay here tonight, instead of going to find help!"

"It's always best to stay in place when lost," Beth reasoned, standing up. "What, you want to go get lost in the jungle? Walk down the beach nonstop?"

"They're right, Heather," DJ said, standing up and patting Beth's shoulder. "Listen to them, we're concerned for everyone's well being."

"Our 'well being'?" Heather shouted right back. "I lost a million dollars over this whole thing! That little rat bastard Ezekiel better be burning in hell now, he cost me everything!"

"Will you all please stop fighting?" Sadie shrieked, covering her ears. "Please just stop! You're not making this any better!"

She and Katie were trying to block out the sounds, while Tyler desperately tried to calm them down, not wanting to see or hear them lose it. He looked at his fireside companions in desperation, and Lindsay acknowledged this.

"I think we need to just sit down and wait, Helga," she said, standing up and approaching the queen bee as well. "All this arguing, it's getting us nowhere."

"Hear hear," Owen said, clapping. Blaineley, still bandaged and leaning against him, nodded like an agreeing mummy. Sierra nodded a great deal as she pulled herself closer to Cody.

Heather sulked over all the requests to stop the fight, she wanted nothing more than to scream her frustrations out. It worked at home, it worked on the show, and she wanted nothing more than to shriek until Gwen's eardrums burst. She instead just narrowed her eyes at her goth nemesis, and hissed, "Next morning. Next morning, I and everyone with sense is heading down the beach. You can stay here with your surfer bimbo friend… if she is your friend anymore. If anyone is."

She stopped off, leaving Gwen thunderstruck. The goth girl couldn't even bring herself to look at Bridgette, fearing too much that Heather was right. She went back to Duncan, sitting down in the sand with a heavy sigh.

"I don't want to leave with her," she whispered to him.

"We'll leave despite her, not because of her. We aren't staying here, Gwen, it's not going to work."

"But what about Leshawna? I cannot leave without seeing where she is."

"Leshawna is either on a different part of the island or she's dead. You have to accept that."

Gwen felt her frustration boiling over again, like if someone turned on the heat under her. She glared at her boyfriend, hissing, "Don't say that. Don't you dare ever say something like that again! Leshawna is fine, she…"

She stopped when she heard some rustling deep in the jungle. Everyone heard it, as it was continuous, like something or somethings trudging through the thick environment. Everyone froze, then they all started crying out.

"We're over here, and with no food," Owen shouted. "Please tell me you brought food!"

"Get me away from these losers," Blaineley and Chris were both shouting.

"It's a rescue," Katie said to Sadie, Lindsay, and Sierra. "We're going to be rescued, girls!"

They all let out squeals of delight, nearly deafening Cody and Izzy. Izzy stepped away from them, and shouted, "Okay, come save us already! But if you're the RCMP, um, we're not home!"

As everyone stood up and started to approach the jungle, the excitement was thick and they started cheering. Even Eva was smiling in relief, glancing over at Gwen. The goth girl smiled back and said, "Looks like we don't have to branch off after all! Boy, that argument seemed pointless, huh?"

Eva nodded, chuckling. "Yeah, only our resident nerd seems upset. Must be still worried about Leshawna."

Gwen glanced over at Harold, and his expression, highlighted by the campfires, sent a shiver up her spine. The nerd was completely pale, even more than her, and he was clutching his shirt so tight that his knuckles were white. She could see his fear behind those tinted glasses of his in his eyes, and heard him muttering to himself.

Dashing over to him, she asked, "Harold, what is wrong with you?"

Harold didn't answer at first, his eyes glued on the jungle. She had to grab his shoulders and shake him, until he looked at her. "That virus they said was infecting the Hawaii islands-"

"Harold, stop that now," she hissed at him. "That's been overblown by the media, we were told by the officials here and Chris that the islands were safe!"

"Then if that's a rescue… why is it coming from within the jungle?"

Gwen hadn't thought of that, and now that she was, she wished he hadn't said that. She slowly approached the edge of the jungle, trying to look into the void of shadows and trees. The noises of approaching figures was growing louder, she could hear sounds that resembled humans.

"_It's just a search party that is heading through the jungle, nothing odd about that,_" she thought, trying to calm herself down amid all the cheering. "_Those grunting sounds are them struggling through. Even if Leshawna had been telling me that this virus or disease or whatever it was, even if she told me it was like a nightmare epidemic, that doesn't mean it's them._"

She glanced over at Harold, who was retreating to the campfire. He picked up a log, the top-half on fire, and slowly approached the jungle. Courtney was watching him too, and approached him.

"What are you doing, Harold? If you want a torch, that's not really the proper kind… be careful, you're going to burn yourself or something!"

"What's taking them so long?" Geoff was asking the excited girls next to him. Lindsay shrugged, giggling in her excitement.

Gwen started to feel apprehension tighten her throat. From a small glint of the moon, she swore she saw something reflect in the jungle. She peered in, moving slowly closer to the edge of the jungle. She swallowed, hating Harold right now for putting the fear in her heart.

"_All the reports ever said_," she thought, "_was that this virus sometimes caused people to go crazy and attack others, like some kind of new rabies. But it also made them sluggish. All cases have been taken to camps to help cure them, they said a cure was imminent._

"_There is absolutely no reason to treat this like a horror movie, Gwen_," she kept trying to convince herself as she struggled for a good view of those approaching. "_Although… if it was… you're that dumb girl slowly going towards the approaching danger, the one you always said was an idiot, and that she was going to die first._

"_She's the warning, the dead girl that goes first to show how evil and bloody the movie gets… no, stop it! Damn you, Harold, it's a rescue party, how dare you bring your nerdy fantasies into here_-"

Her thoughts were cut off when the first being from the jungle lunged at her, sharp teeth gleaming in the moonlight as it headed for her neck.

* * *

><p>"And I really hate it when they cut off the song at the end."<p>

"Oh, I do too! That's such a drag, and usually the song isn't even close to over!"

Noah shook his head, adding, "Darn those wacky, radio DJs, trying to be so hip but being… what's the word, unhip?"

"There's many words for it. Wait, are you asking me for slang?" Leshawna said playfully, smacking his arm. "You really wanna ask the sister for some street words?"

"Don't go playing the race card with me, I'm Indian. I'll throw it right back at you… jiggy?"

She barked with laughter at his fake slang. Noah was actually impressed how he could make her laugh so much, he always thought she was a prude. Looking back, knowing she was best friends with Gwen and Bridgette, maybe that had been a rather presumptuous thought.

"You're crazy, Noah, but I guess you're all right."

"Oh, you guess, huh? Most girls are thrilled when a boy takes them on a moonlit walk down the beach, but you just are 'all right' with it. Forget the diamonds, then."

She laughed more, grinning at him. When she saw him smiling right back, they both forgot their troubles, even if they were major troubles. Right now, both were glad that the other wasn't as bad as they thought, if not really good company.

Noah was about to say something when rustling from the jungle alerted them. Leshawna flinched, then sighed. "Just some more animals, now. Don't let our imagination get the best of us."

They nodded, walking away from the rustling. Before they found the courage to talk again, a moan from the jungle carried over the crashing of waves on the shore. Noah turned slowly towards the area the sound seemed to come from, eyes wide, hands shaking.

"That," he whispered, "did _not_ sound like an animal."

"It's… probably just some kind of crazy beast," she replied. She was clutching the pipe, steadying her hands. "Look, it's late, we both got shattered nerves, don't…"

She stopped when someone stumbled out of the jungle, crashing through the foliage like a drunk or dazed person. Noah and Leshawna both stared, watching this person collapse on the sand. He pulled himself up, grunting and moaning.

"Um," Noah stammered, watching intensively. His mind screamed for him not to, but common manners, practically instinct, won over. He stepped forward and asked, "Hello? Are you okay?"

The man looked over at him, and Noah saw dead eyes and bloodstained teeth gleaming in the moon. They shone brightly, just like the reflection of blood that was all over the man's mouth and neck. The cynic tried to say something, but fear locked him up.

The bloody man opened his mouth, and let a hungry moan, reaching for him. It grabbed Noah's sweater vest and lunged forward with its beast-like teeth. Noah thought he heard high-pitched screaming, maybe Leshawna or maybe him. He raised his plank of wood just in time, and the man bit into it.

The weight of the man lunging at him slammed down on Noah, knocking him down into the sand. His attacker bit down hard on the wood, splintering it and cutting his lips. Undaunted, the man released the wood and went for Noah's throat again.

That was when Leshawna grabbed the man's shirt collar and hurled him back. She might have been shouting, but his mind was screaming enough to block out reality's noise. He thought he heard her threaten his attacker, but the madman was getting back up.

Leshawna swung her pipe, hitting the man in the upper chest. Noah heard bone crack, the same kind of crack when he broke a bone in the Yukon. He winced, but the madman barely flinched. He came at Leshawna, reaching for her, moaning hungrily again. Blood was dripping from his mouth.

All Noah heard next was a metallic impact against bone. Leshawna had hit the man in the head with the pipe. Only there wasn't really a head left. The man's head seemed to cave in like rotten fruit, teeth falling out of the smashed mouth. He flopped onto the beach, not moving, arms still reaching out for his prey.

Leshawna and Noah didn't move. Both were panting, eyes wide, and then the smell of a very dead corpse hit their nostrils. Noah puked all over himself, Leshawna heaved to the side. They gagged and spat, coughing and hacking.

More deathly moans alerted their attention. Three more people like the first man were coming out of the jungle, attracted by sound and smell more than likely. They eyed Leshawna and Noah, and all three headed for her, moaning with intense hunger.

"Zombies," Noah managed to say, barely a whisper. Then, in a terrified voice that he didn't even recognize as his own, "ZOMBIES!"

Leshawna snapped out of her terror first. Wiping the sick from her mouth and chin, she shouted at them. "Stay back, I'm warning you!"

They didn't, they came at her. She hit one in the shoulder, right in the collar bone, and knocked the thin wretched over. It started to stand back up again, undaunted, as the other two closed in.

"The heads," Noah was shrieking. "Go for the heads!"

Leshawna squeezed on the pipe, growling as she pushed all fear aside and let it be replaced with her competitive side. "_Do these monsters want my blood?_" she thought as she choked up on the pipe. "_Then let them try to take it, but they're going to have to get through all of me first_!"

She swung the pipe like a baseball bat at one of the approaching zombies, slamming it in the temple. It went down with a guttural grunt, twitching on the sandy ground. The second one, she brought down the pipe square in the forehead. It staggered backwards, even more sluggish than before, as if swimming through molasses, and tried to come at her again.

A second blow killed the second zombie, smashing in its brains in its broken skull. Leshawna rounded on the third zombie, as the scrawny, Hawaiian shirt wearing ghoul came at her. It was faster, it was growling at her, clawing at her with bloody hands. She swore, for one terrified moment, that it was saying her name in the midst of its ghoulish snarling.

That nightmarish thought was destroyed along with the zombie's head, as Noah had stood up and brought a large rock down on it. The ghoul's cranium was crushed into very sick pulp, eyeballs popping out of their sockets. The dead zombie fell on them, squishing them for even more gross sound effects.

Leshawna whirled around, holding the pipe like if it was a real weapon now. She heaved, muttering, "Come on… come on, where are you?" Looking around, peering into the dark jungle, she waited for another attack.

It was only when Noah said her name repeatedly that she was shocked out of her battle rage. She almost dropped her pipe as the adrenaline started to die too. "What… what happened?"

"Zombies. Those were-"

"Don't," she shouted, startling him. "That's not… possible!"

"Oh yeah? Look at them," Noah shouted, pointing at a couple of the dead bodies. "Those guys have their intestines ripped out of their stomachs and dangling out. Do you know of any living beings that can do that while attacking someone?"

"It's… it's not…"

"Face it, Leshawna, you were right! These people… they're not people anymore. People cannot walk through jungles and then lunge at others when their intestines are 'out-testines'!"

"The… the virus," she stammered, her mind racing. "They… they said it was like a case of rabies… they said it was contained in the areas it had broken out in… the… the news said that… the islanders… Chris… they said we would be safe."

"And you know, they all turned out to be wrong. Dead wrong… pardon my stupid pun."

He would have continued, but then the wind blew, roaring wind that rattled their ears. Then both realized it wasn't the wind that was making noise, it was moans. Lots and lots of hungry moans, far off in the distance. It was almost one long cry at once, and it shook the two teens down to their very souls.

"What is that?" Leshawna asked, gripping her head.

"That's… that's like the Cry of the Undead!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Noah threw away the rock he had been holding so tightly to that his fingers hurt. "It's just… in zombie research, people-"

"There's no such thing, Noah!"

"Leshawna," he shouted back at her, then lowered his voice when he couldn't bring himself to anger with her. "Leshawna… you saw them. You just killed four walking corpses trying to eat you with their guts hanging out. Zombies… they're real."

"Shit," she muttered. "Just… but what is that?"

"Zombie research, well, before it was real, said that zombies are attracted to sounds, smells, and sights. They shamble about, and when they see or sense food, they begin to moan. Some people believe it's like a scavenger cry, that it's not only because of their own undying hunger, but to alert other zombies to come help."

"Are you saying zombies are like some kind of rat or vulture?"

"That's possible, but I don't know what real zombies are like, just the fake ones people think of during zombie outbreaks and apocalypses."

Leshawna shook her head, then looked at him. "Are… are you saying that we're in the middle of a zombie outbreak?"

"I think we just shipwrecked ourselves onto one."

Leshawna and Noah looked into the jungle, then up into the sky where all the moans seemed to be carried about. Leshawna had heard wolf howls, but these sounded like a chorus of hungry moans. So much more chilling, it made her shake. She clenched her bloodstained pipe, and grumbled, "All the more reason for us to find the others and get the hell out of here!"

She walked over to the ocean, washing the sick off of her arms. As she scrubbed off the blood and gore from the pipe in the wet sand, Noah was right beside her. "I don't think you've fully grasped this, Leshawna."

"Wash yourself off, you're covered in puke."

"Leshawna, the island is baying for blood! This island probably had an outbreak, a class three outbreak!"

"Wash yourself off as you speak, Noah, I don't want to waste another minute!"

He grudgingly squat down in the water, hating to remember how he had almost drowned a few hours ago. As the vomit was being scrubbed off by waves and his hands, he shouted at her over the surf, "Class three outbreak, Leshawna!"

"Speak in normal terms, will you? Some of us didn't fantasize about end of the world bloodbaths!"

"It's actually normal terms for outbreaks-"

"Noah, I am so _not_ in the mood to argue! Just please!" She was looking at him in such a mixture of emotions that he couldn't tell what was the primary: anger, fear, sorrow, or panic. "Please tell me what I need to know!"

"Okay, look, class three outbreak means that the infection of whatever is infecting people is at city-wide levels. Class one is just those rare cases, class two is like a village or small town, class three would be a large city or in our case, an island. The news has been calling these class one outbreaks, looks like we were lied to."

"Gee, the mainstream media lied while also spreading a message of doom. How original."

"Yeah, I blame MSNBC too," Noah quipped as he finished scrubbing off his sweater vest. "But the point is, you hear all those zombies? That is not just a few zombies, that is a whole, freaking crowd of them."

"Why are they still moaning?" she asked, listening over the surf. She wished the sound of the waves could drown them out, but they could still be heard. "What's causing that?"

"My guess? One found something to eat, and now all the nearby zombies are moaning in response, and others are moaning in response, and others to that are moaning in response, and the chain reaction continues. It's the Cry of the Undead, like a coyote howling to bring its buddies to the feast."

"But what caused that, Noah?"

"They probably found some animal to eat, or maybe some poor sap who they're chasing or eating."

"Wait, were they set off by the ones that came at us?"

"I doubt that. If the Cry of the Undead started near us, we would hear them near us to begin with, not so far away."

"That's a relief, I guess. Then…"

She stopped moving suddenly, as what just dawned on her made her heart skip a beat. When Noah saw her terrified expression, it didn't dawn on him until a few seconds later. Her eyes were wide in horror, and she started wading back to the shore, adrenaline pumping again.

"The zombies found the others," she shouted. When she hit the beach, she started running down the shore, heaving but unrelenting. Noah could barely keep up with her, hearing her cry out.

"Leshawna, stop yelling," he was forced to yell, "you'll attract more zombies!"

"We have to help them," she shouted back at him. "Oh God, please God, please don't let any of them die! Bridgette! Harold! Beth! Tyler! Gwen!"

* * *

><p>Gwen fell back in the sand, her attacker coming at her with snarling moans. The bikini-clad zombie lunged down at her, and she managed to scoot away at the last second, a chomping of teeth at where her ankle was a second ago. It snarled in hunger, sharp teeth glistening with drool and blood, coming at her.<p>

The sounds of screaming from the living and moans from the undead filled the air so suddenly and sharply, Gwen thought her eardrums exploded for a second. In a daze, she saw the zombie come at her again, and she kicked at its head feebly.

Blond hair came off on her black boot, and she slammed her foot on its skull again. There was a crack, and the zombie's movement slowed considerably. Blood was leaking from its head injury, and it was now crawling at her.

She kicked its head more, grunting with every thrust of her leg, until she broke open its head, smashing its brain inside its skull. The zombie twitched, and she stared at it, at what she had done. Then another zombie started lumbering towards her from the jungle, stepping on the one she had just killed, coming at her.

Gwen scrambled to her feet. Something ran by her, she didn't see what, and it threw her off-balance. She started to run away too, and then saw zombies coming down from the left side of the beach, coming out of a gap in the trees from the jungle far down.

The goth girl heaved, panic and sick starting to overwhelm her, but her adrenaline helped her overcome it. Fight or flee response was over, the former had won, and now she was determined to take down these monsters.

She reached at the nearest bonfire, grabbing a long plank of wood on fire, and swung it at the zombies. They weren't deterred, fire was not a fear to them like anything living would be. She slammed the fiery log against one of them. Its hair caught on fire, and she hit it again, breaking open its skull and killing it.

With a vicious growl, she ran after another one that was coming after Bridgette. The surfer girl was paralyzed with fear, barely able to walk away from the approaching ghouls. Gwen slammed the burning log on the one closest to Bridgette, mashing its head to pulp. She swung at another one, and finally the charred part of the wood broke away, leaving her with a stump of a weapon. The zombie collapsed but was getting back up.

Her boot heel came stomping down its head, once, twice, thrice. It exploded, reminding her of an overripe melon. She stepped back and rubbed the brains from her boot in the sand as she looked over at Bridgette.

"Get out of here," she shouted at her friend.

Bridgette could only stammer in terror, looking around her as she saw her friends being attacked by the zombies. All she and Gwen could hear were screams, horrible, bloodcurdling screams, and the moans of the undead. Gwen shouted at Bridgette again to run, but couldn't even hear herself over the noise.

The goth girl grabbed her friend and pulled her away from the incoming zombies, towards the ocean. Gwen's head felt like it was going to pop like that ghoul head she had stomped, her heart was going to explode, and she was almost ready to lose all bowel control.

A high-pitched shriek that made her head rattle came nearby; it was either Katie or Sadie, she couldn't tell which. She saw flashes of green and orange, something stabbing a zombie in the eye. Beth was dragging a petrified DJ towards the shore too, the short girl's adrenaline the only thing giving her the strength to do so.

Some zombies were coming from the right side of the camp too, and Gwen saw them coming down towards Trent, Courtney, and Geoff. She let go of Bridgette, trying to tell her to defend herself, but didn't know if the words came out. She only knew she grabbed another burning log at the base and charged after the zombies closing in on the others.

She swung hard on the first zombie, breaking its neck with the blow to the side of its head due to most of its neck torn away. The second zombie of the group was bashed down, brains splattering the wood that broke down as well. Gwen picked up a nearby rock, and started bashing in another zombie's head with it, blood and gore splattering everywhere.

Screaming could be heard nearby, it could have been herself. When she looked up, she saw Cody wrestling one of them, it trying to bite his face. Sierra, despite her injuries, launched herself at the zombie, knocking it down. She was trying to beat the zombie's face against the sand when more advanced on her and Cody, reaching for them both.

Gwen heard more screaming nearby, it sounded like Lindsay. She couldn't look though, a zombie was closing in on her. She leapt back and the zombie fell down in its rush for her. Before it could stand back up, she stomped it to death.

Someone grabbed her shoulders. She grabbed the person's head and tried to push back until she heard a very human cry of pain. Stopping, she saw Trent with red marks on his face where she had scratched him. She tried to apologize, but he was already pulling her away, just barely missed being grabbed by a few more zombies.

Gwen led Trent back to Bridgette near the water, screaming at him to watch her friend. He was protesting, she was shrieking obscenities at him to do it as she bolted back towards the others. She could hear Owen hollering for help, Sadie or Katie screaming bloody murder, and caught a glimpse of Justin swinging a burning log at a few approaching.

"Duncan," she screamed out for her boyfriend. "Duncan!"

She couldn't see him, all she saw was fire, zombies, and the others all running around. Chef and Tyler were grappling with them, being overwhelmed. Harold was beating one down with a branch, Courtney hiding behind him in terror. Gwen headed over to her and pulled her to her feet.

"Get out of here," Gwen shouted. "Get to the beach!"

"No," Courtney cried back, "no, I can't leave him!"

The CIT struggled out of Gwen's grasp, managing to pick up a rock and attack the zombie Harold was going after. Gwen groaned in exasperation, and then felt hot, putrid breath behind her.

She turned to see a zombie, sharp teeth coated in blood, leaning in for her neck. She winced, ready for the pain, but the only pain that came was to her hair when something knocked the zombie's head clean off its shoulders. Eva stood nearby, holding a large tree branch that was stained in blood.

"Move, girl," Eva shouted.

"No no, get to the beach," Gwen yelled at her. "Help the others, they need you!"

Eva glanced over at the small crowd gathering down by the water, and nodded in response. She, along with Harold and Courtney sprinted down there, as Gwen looked around frantically for Duncan. She thought she saw him, but it was Izzy's green clothing, almost a blur as she sprinted by that made her think of him.

Gwen heard Tyler bellowing, whether pain or battle rage she didn't know. A warbling scream of agony that came from someone she couldn't recognize drowned out everything else for a few seconds. The screams continued, but Gwen's world was sent into a daze when something slammed into her.

Knocked down to the ground, she struggled to stand back up, as the person who pushed her over stepped on her shoulder. She saw a flash of navy blue amid blurred vision of intense pain she was feeling, but pulled herself up. Nothing felt broken, just there would be a bruise later, if she survived this.

Heather was screaming nearby. The zombies were coming at those near the water. Izzy was yanking a zombie off of someone, shanking the ghoul through the eye until it stopped twitching. Gwen, acting almost by some kind of response that she had now set, picked up her third burning log and charged after the zombies.

This one faired her better, as five zombies went down before it finally broke apart. One ghoul grabbed for her, and she shoved the rest of the wood into its gaping maw. With a twist of her body, she threw the zombie headfirst into one of the bonfires, burning its head as well as bashing it open.

Then she finally saw Duncan, holding a large tree branch and swinging it at a zombie tauntingly. He played with it for a couple seconds before dashing forward and swinging at its legs, knocking it down. He bashed in its skull, shouting many explicits and garbled words.

Gwen headed for him, dodging another zombie. She stomped down on its skull when it collapsed after the failed lunge. She very quickly thought a prayer, thanking God above that these were the slow, lumbering kind of zombies instead of Olympic sprinters like she saw in some movies.

She screamed out his name, he looked over at her and then pointed before her. Whirling around, a zombie was closing in on her, almost sprinting at her. Gwen had no time to react, but the redhead who leapt at the ghoul knocked it aside. Izzy, holding what Gwen saw now was a broken, sharp piece of wood, stomped down on the zombie's chest. She jammed her shiv into the zombie's eye, piercing the brain and killing it instantly.

Unable to pull it back out, Izzy leapt back as she whipped around. She shouted a name Gwen didn't catch as she sprinted towards one of the campfires. Gwen only cared about heading for Duncan, and when she reached him, he grabbed her wrist and started pulling her away from the camp.

He was screaming that they had to run, she was shrieking back that she couldn't leave them. Only the approach of a zombie stopped them, and he shoved it against a tree. Grabbing its head, he bashed its cranium against the tree over and over until it stopped moving. When he let go, he stepped back, panting for air.

Gwen was also heaving, but her mind was processing something. The sounds of screaming and moaning were much lower, but still there. She looked at the camp, and saw many figures writhing on the ground. Living and dead bodies lay in the sand, and some zombies were… some were eating people alive.

She grabbed a large branch at the edge of the jungle, running back and screaming at the top of her lungs. She ignored Duncan's cry for her to come back, and swung down on a zombie that was eating someone's arm. The person was still alive, their fingers were grasping for help. As Gwen beat the zombie down, one thought kept racing through her head.

"_Please no one be dead,_" she thought, again and again. "_Please no one be dead! Don't die, oh God, please don't die!_

"_Leshawna_!" Her thoughts drifted to her best friend as she fought another zombie. "_Leshawna, I need you so bad now! Oh God, I need you, where are you when I need you the most, to be strong?_"

As she kicked a zombie down and bashed in its head with the breaking branch, she thought over and over how much she needed Leshawna, how sorry she was for everything, and continued to pray no one was dead.

She saw movement, and she swung her branch at the target. The zombie was knocked off-balance, and her branch broke, but she followed up like Izzy had and jammed the broken wood into the zombie's eye socket. As the zombie fell backwards dead, she lost her footing and fell onto her back too.

Her vision was blacking out before she hit the ground, and even soft sand felt like a colossal blow to the back of her head. She reached up, hoping someone could hoist her up to go back fighting. Adrenaline was failing her, every single part of her body was screaming in pain and exhaustion.

"_Don't let it win_," she thought to herself, her other hand grasping for something to defend herself with. She felt so helpless as all of her senses began to fail. She couldn't hear anything, her ears burned so much. She couldn't smell anything, her nose felt burnt out by all the rotting corpses and fire. She couldn't even feel the tears in her eyes that would have stung.

She did, however, see the zombie coming down on her, bloody maw open as it hiss-moaned in hunger. She prayed it would be quick, she prayed her body was numb enough to not feel this.

Gwen blacked out before the zombie leaned in, moaning for her blood…

…

**To Be Continued.**

…

* * *

><p>So who survived? Who died? And most importantly (well, maybe not most importantly, all things considered), who's hooking up during this chaos?<p>

Yeah, that's how dire of a shipping fanboy that I am! Pairings are just as important as survival! You all think I'm like Alfred? I'm definitely more like Crystal.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten my novel, this was written in parts over about a month.


	2. Revenge of the Dead Island

**Disclaimer** - All rights belong to Teletoon, Cartoon Network, and the creators of TDI and TDA. No profit is being made in the making of the fanfiction. This alternate-universe episode of TDI contains stunts performed by written teens. Do not try any of this at home.

**TKN's Message** - Yes, I finally updated! The problem was that I am always writing on my novel, and thus fanfiction will take a solid second place. I have to admit, this chapter was really difficult at times; hopefully, it doesn't come out too bumpy. So what I am saying is: be critical. I'd appreciate it.

Warning, the following contains scenes of extreme violence, profanity, and character death. Also, you may think some of the characters are a little OOC, but I like to think life-threatening situations and dire circumstances change people like that.

* * *

><p>…<p>

**Chapter 02** - Escape from the Dead Rising Island

…

* * *

><p>Noah hated running. He hated having to break out into anything more than a light jog. Gym class back at school had been a major pain, and he had been hoping the show wouldn't require much physical prowess when he joined. He would be happy to not have to run throughout all of his life.<p>

Wasn't he lucky to be running for his life?

"Leshawna," he heaved, feeling his heart hammer in his chest from the stress, "please slow down!"

"I ain't slowing down, Noah," she responded as they sprinted down the beach. "My friends are in trouble!"

"You… you're armed with a pipe, it's the middle of the night, and we don't even know where they are," he tried to reason with her. "Please, stop… I'm gonna throw up again."

Leshawna did stop, but only because she herself needed to catch her breath. For the first time in her life, she resented her size. She had always been fine with her body, but now that she was running nonstop and combating monsters was making it hard for her to carry her own.

She watched as Noah fell down on his hands and knees, heaving but nothing except sickly spit coming out. Though she felt a tinge of guilt for having him run so much, her mind was primarily focused on finding her friends.

If there was one thing she didn't want to think about, it was the monsters they had just fought. The undead, zombies, whatever they were called, she just wanted to think of them as freaks. The amount of blood and gore on their bodies, how their teeth had sharpened like a shark's, it all looked like something from a horror movie.

"_I'm living a horror movie_," Leshawna thought. "_Oh, Gwen would know what to do, she's the one who watches that freaky…_"

When she thought of her pale friend, her second wind came to her. Forgetting the exhaustion, and the pains in her legs and chest, she started walking forward, clenching the slightly bent pipe. Noah had to wheeze to remind her that he was still there.

"Please," he begged, "remember… that I am a twig, according to you, and thus zombies will pick their teeth with me."

"You do realize," she said as she at down next to him, "that if we don't keep moving, we may not find the safety that we need from these freaks."

He nodded, moaning as he moved into a sitting position, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "I don't know what's worse. The fact that I'm soaking wet from our storm escapade, that there are zombies after us and we have no real weapons, or… no, never mind, there's nothing worse than that."

"Yeah, I sure can't think of anything worse than that right now," she admitted. Shaking her head wearily, she looked him over and said, "When you get our strength back, let me know. We need to keep on moving."

"I don't know who's going to kill me first," he muttered in-between his heavy breaths, "the zombies or you."

"Stop talking like that, we ain't gonna die. Where's your backbone, Noah?"

"About ready to snap from how tired I am, thank you very much."

Leshawna groaned. Noah could certainly be sardonic, and it wasn't helpful during their current predicament. Still, she had remembered what he had said earlier about coping mechanisms, and decided not to give him an earful. It'd be pointless, she didn't want to waste her breath on chewing him out; he was just as stressed and scared as she was.

After a couple minutes, Noah managed to catch his breath. When they carried on walking, he spotted a fallen branch near the trees, and picked it up. The wood looked and felt strong, but he said, "I'd be much happier with a baseball bat, a katana, or maybe an AK-47."

"Isn't that a terrorist weapon?"

"No, it's just a gun; just because some terrorists and criminals use it doesn't make it evil. What, you'd rather not have a gun just because some bad men used it?"

"Why are you always trying to pick a fight with me, Noah?" she snapped. "Don't we have enough problems without you snapping at me?"

"I'm sorry, should I lash out at the zombies? The ocean? I'm having trouble enough with all that is happening, don't make it worse by asking me to curb my tongue; your tongue is just as sharp, and you don't see me telling you to can it."

"I'm not asking you to can it, string bean, I'm asking you to stop being so abrasive."

Noah sighed heavily. He had had this conversation before so many times with family, especially his parents. Cody had lent him a book about Albert Einstein at Playa Des Losers in the first season, and it had mentioned how incredibly stubborn the well-known genius had been. While he wouldn't admit it out loud, Noah was proud to have the same stubbornness as one of the world's most brilliant minds.

This sparked something inside of him, mostly driven to make peace with Leshawna. "Okay, let's change the subject," he muttered, "um… five most brilliant minds in history."

"What?"

"I'm trying to make peace, so talk about something interesting, keep our mind of flesh-eating zombies," he said, gripping his branch weapon as he gestured with his head towards the forest. "So c'mon, five most brilliant minds of history."

"Noah, I couldn't begin," she started, then sighed and chuckled. "You probably wouldn't know anyone I mentioned, I studied a lot of African-Canadian history, as well as other subjects in history. There's a lot separating you and me."

"Can't be that bad, now look who's being abrasive."

Leshawna groaned as they continued to walk across the beach. She didn't know why she was throwing these walls up at Noah, maybe she was just worried that they'd argue or something.

"Okay then, Noah," she said, managing a little smile. "Who are your top five? I don't really have a top five."

"Easy enough, though some are a little cliché: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Sun Tzu, and Steve Jobs."

"Eh? Steve Jobs?" Leshawna repeated with a chuckle. "What about Bill Gates?"

"Heck no! Proud Mac user, true and true!"

"Seriously, me too, the family grew up with them."

"Nice to know we have something in common, I feel so much more comfortable now-"

Upon saying this, and looking back Noah would kick himself what was obviously jinxing it, one of the zombie freaks stumbled out of the jungle. It moaned, blood spurting out of the incredible bite wound in its neck.

Noah screamed, more high-pitched than he would care to admit to, and swung the branch. Due to his lack of experience in anything physical, his attack came too low, and instead of a blow to the forehead, he hit the undead being right in the mouth. This promptly knocked out most of the ghoul's teeth, and when it bit down on the branch, it was mostly bloody gums.

The zombie was undetermined by having a crude tooth removal, and it tried to wrestle the branch away from Noah, gripping it with its mouth and hands. It struggled with undead might, unrelenting in its strength. Though it only had a couple tries, as Leshawna brought her pipe down on the beast's noggin. Noah watched as wham, bam, thank you for saving my life ma'am.

The cynic shoved the dead zombie off of him and pried the branch from its mouth, some of its teeth still in his weapon. He groaned as he looked over at Leshawna, muttering, "Okay, chalk up another time you saved my life. You're going to level up before I do."

"Sweetheart, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll take it as a 'you're welcome.'" Leshawna replied. "Now shall we get going?"

Noah nodded as he pulled himself up on his feet, with some support for Leshawna. They walked for about five minutes before they hit a dead-end.

The sandy beach turned into a rocky cliff, waves crashing into the pathless shore. As the ocean splashed onto the rocks, Leshawna sighed in regret as she started forward, but Noah grabbed her arm.

"You're kidding, right?" he said, over the crashing of waves. "You cannot try to walk across this!"

"We have to keep going forward, Noah."

"One slip, you end up being the crash of the waves and the rocks of the cliff. This is a death trap."

"Well, there's a river near the center," Leshawna said, pointing at the rushing river that emptied out over the rocky shore. "I'm not going to go wading through that, it's moving too fast."

"Then we gotta do the most suicidal thing I can think of," Noah lamented. "We gotta go… in there."

He pointed at the forest, which was so dark that it seemed to absorb the moonlight. Leshawna winced, exchanging glances with him. "Um, just how are we going to that, string bean?"

"Beats me, maybe we can walk as close as we can near the shore or that river's side. Down by the riverside, as the saying goes… damn, maybe we should scratch that plan."

"Noah, can you think of anything else?"

"Other than turning around and going back the way we came, no… except panicking and lying on the ground crying."

"I'll go with the riverside one; I trust your judgment."

"Really?" Noah asked, blinking in surprise. He actually felt a little touched by this, and didn't know what to say. Not many listened to him, not even family.

"_Every time the family gets together for dinner, all my siblings go first; by the time they get to me, everyone's eaten and ready to leave._"

"Noah? Ready to go?"

"Y-yeah, I'm ready," he replied. "You can lead the way… I guess I trust you."

"You guess?"

"All right, I do. You're the party leader, the tank, the one fighting the zombies."

"What do you mean by 'tank'?"

Noah had to explain the computer game slang to her, but as they made it to the riverside, Leshawna was only partially listening. All she could think about were her friends, wondering how bad off they were, if they were trapped or hurt…

And after five minutes of walking on the shoreline, she added her exceptionally sore feet to the list of things on her mind. Wet, sandy shoes were the worst thing in the world on her mind right now, she'd rather have more zombies than these damn feet right now!

She started cursing under her breath, a very bad habit of hers that only came when she was stressed, and Noah heard some of it. It was some of the worst swearing he had ever heard, and he spent most of his time on the internet.

"Sheesh," he commented. "I know things are bad, but really? You're gonna be like that?"

"Oh damn it, was I doing that?" Leshawna murmured. "I swear, I didn't mean to…"

The moaning howl of a zombie startled them, from further in the jungle. They both looked to see numerous ghouls, about twelve, wandering around. Their glossed over eyes shone in the moonlight, and their silhouettes seemed to be accented right down to their sharpened teeth. Leshawna and Noah were frozen in place, transfixed on the zombies, until one of them looked their way.

They gasped and hid behind a tree. The zombies' moaning, groaning, and growling echoed throughout the trees.

"What's irritated them so much?" Leshawna whispered. "I mean, they weren't making a noise until now, did they see us?"

"More than likely smelt us, our wet human flesh travels well in the air."

Leshawna groaned, then grabbed his arm. "Look, hiding ain't gonna us, so let's just head up this river. There's gotta be a shallow point, or where it's not so fast."

Noah winced as he continued to walk, despite aches, exhaustion, and uncomfortable shoes. He looked at the other side of the river, watched the rushing water, and wondered if swimming across would be better than risking zombies coming at them. No matter how tired he was…

One of the zombies let out a particularly loud moan, reminding Noah of a nature documentary where it discussed coyotes baying to alert others that it had found food. He looked back and saw one of the zombies stumbling towards them, almost tripping on the foliage.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Leshawna declared, unwittingly alerting the other zombies. The two ran, and she refused to let go of his arm. Though her grip was a little painful, he didn't want her to let go.

The baying of zombies, some gargling on blood and bits of flesh stuck in their throats, seemed to follow Noah and Leshawna as they ran down the riverside.

* * *

><p>Eyes were fluttering open, a gasp escaped the mouth… the night sky above out of focus as the stars swum around inside it.<p>

Struggling to sit up, the limbs were too sore to do so at first. A rush of adrenaline gave new life to them, and everything focused for a few seconds.

"_What… the… them…,_" were the first thoughts as the person slowly regained consciousness. Sitting up, the thoughts became more lucid. "_Zombies… they were all over the place… fought them… did I survive?_"

With a pained grunt, the person sat up and made an attempt to stand up on shaky legs. "_They were killing someone… they came at me… Gwen… where is… came at… bit… Gwen…_"

Another strained groan as the being stretched their very stiff limbs and back. Cracks and pops could be heard as they straightened out, gasping as they looked around. Eyesight wasn't normal, only able to make out the bonfires that were still there, and human figures around the area. Conversations and pained cries filled the person's ears, rattling their already fragile mind.

"_Everyone… who… did anyone get bit? I saw… someone bit… Gwen… Gwen was… argh… think! Think…_

"_Think, Gwen! Damn it, focus! You… you are Gwen! Gwen Ingrid… do not lose focus on reality! Now stand up straight, you are needed! NOW!_"

Yelling at herself mentally did the trick, and with a big shiver and a deep breath of air, she became fully lucid. Looking around, she only half a second before Bridgette seized her in the tightest hug the goth girl had ever received.

"Oh, thank God," Bridgette cried out, squeezing her so tight that Gwen thought she might break one of her ribs. "Are you okay? Are you coherent?"

The surfer looked deep into the goth's eyes, the latter blinking from the shock of it all. "I think I am," Gwen said, looking back at her friend. "Was I… was I bitten?"

"No, no you're fine! Tyler saved you when you passed out, he fought off them and carried you back to us… away from where those… those things came from!"

"They're zombies, Bridgette, they were… are they all gone?"

The surfer nodded, whispering fearfully, "But we don't know if anymore are coming! All we have are branches to defend ourselves… and… and the… the…"

Bridgette's eyes filled with tears immediately, and she pointed towards the bonfires. The contestants of the show were all over the place, some of them dragging the corpses of zombies away into a pit a couple more were digging. Gwen then saw Tyler crotched over someone, and when she approached, she truly couldn't believe what she was seeing at first.

The blond body was almost covered in blood from the neck down, bereft of life. Tyler held her tenderly, sobbing uncontrollably. Gwen watched him crying, still unable to fully grasp what she was seeing. Then, as sudden as a blink of the eye, she did: Lindsay, her neck violently open, lay dead in her former boyfriend's arms.

Gwen covered her mouth in horror and turned away, just to see Sadie screaming in anguish. The larger BFFF was over her platonic twin's body, clutching her shoulder. Katie was covered in vicious bite marks, parts of her mangled horribly. Sadie's crying was so shrill, it seemed to pierce Gwen's heart every time.

She turned away, and almost stepped on Heather's body. Bile rose in her throat as she saw the mauled remains of her rival, and she fought back against it. Heather's face, right arm, and legs had all been torn apart by the undead, an indescribable horror that made Gwen initially feel nothing but sorrow and pity for the girl she had hated the most.

"Gwen?"

She turned to see Cody staring at her, looking her over as if to check for bites. Gwen felt ready to faint from what she had seen, and Cody, who she had always thought wasn't very observant, seemed to noticed. He practically caught her when she dove into his arms, clinging to him.

Her body was shuddering something awful without control for a few seconds. When she thought she managed to cool it down, she could feel Cody shaking. She looked into his eyes, and though he tried, he couldn't say what had shaken him.

"Who… who did we lose?" she managed to ask him.

"Lindsay, Katie, Justin, Heather, Blaineley, Chef Hatchet, and… Sierra."

Gwen could only stare, and Cody gestured behind him. Though the goth girl didn't want to look, she still did. Sierra's body lay on her side, blood all over the sand underneath her. The bald, temporarily crippled fangirl had put up a fight, there was blood and pieces of rotting skin on the bottom of her shoes and her fists.

"She defended me," Cody said, his voice thick with sorrow and guilt. "She couldn't even walk, and she was protecting me from zombies. When they tore into her… I couldn't stop them. I couldn't stop them from killing her…"

Gwen gripped his shoulders, looking him in the eye. "Cody, do not blame yourself," she said. "You aren't to blame, it was those-"

"Gwen!"

Duncan's voice seemed to pull her out of a horrible pit. She turned to see her punk boyfriend approaching her, sand all over his hands and pants, signs of digging. Gwen threw herself at him, embracing in a tight hug. He returned it, but only for a few seconds as he muttered, "Come on, we're getting out of here!"

"What?" Gwen asked as she was released from the hug too soon for her desire. "But… the others…"

"We don't have time to bury everyone, and those bastards might be back for more," Duncan said, taking her arm and pulling her with him away from the bonfires.

Before she could protest, a bloodcurdling scream startled her and everyone else. She recognized the screamer: Owen. The large teenager was holding his hands up defensively, Alejandro standing in front of him and holding a large branch.

"Just accept it, you were bitten," Alejandro hollered. "You're going to be one of the _muerta_, you fat moron!"

"No, no, I swear," Owen protested. "I wasn't bitten by anyone! Please don't club me to death!"

"Just shut up!"

Alejandro was about the bring the branch down on Owen, before someone tackled him. The handsome Latino was knocked down, and he violently struggled. He punched his attacker in the face, busting his glasses.

Harold screamed in pain and fell off him. Alejandro heaved in frustration as he glared at the nerd, who squinted right back him and declared, "How dare you try to kill Owen!"

"I know he was bitten, you fucking moron!"

Alejandro tried to pick up the large branch, but someone stomped on it to prevent him. That person was Courtney, and she quickly pulled the manipulator's weapon away from him. "Don't think for a second," she hissed at him, "that you can make the call like that."

"You're going to trust Harold's word over mine?" Alejandro shouted. "Harold? That nerd? Over me, senorita?"

Courtney looked over at Harold, who was struggling to find his glasses. "Well, if anyone knows anything about those things," she said, "it would be him. Harold, if someone's been bitten, will they turn into one of those… like in the movies?"

"That's highly possible, but not assured," Harold stated. "We don't know what kind of strain this zombie virus is, if that is indeed what exactly we're fighting. There's many kinds-"

"Shut up," Alejandro declared. "We don't want to hear any more of your stupid, pointless ramblings!"

"I want to hear," Courtney shouted right back at Alejandro. "I want to know what he thinks! He saved so many of us tonight!"

"He didn't save enough of us."

Alejandro's thoughts could be seen when he glanced at Heather's body, and the Latino's eyes became darker. With no compassion, he stomped on Harold's glasses and kicked them with a load of sand in his face. The nerd sputtered as Alejandro shouted, "Owen was bitten, and I'm going to take care of him!"

"I wasn't bitten," Owen shrieked in fear. "I swear!"

"There's no way a fat ass like you made it out of that attack unscathed," Alejandro replied. His eyes narrowed as he added, "We're going to have to deal with you appropriately now."

"Wait," Gwen shouted, running over to the arguing group that everyone had eyes on. She approached Alejandro, asking, "You said he was bitten? Are you positive?"

"I'm sure of it."

"Where?"

"His side, though it'd take forever to find."

Gwen looked at Owen, the large teenager sweating bullets and feeling his large form. There was so much blood and sand on him, it was impossible to tell where and if he was injured. The goth girl looked at Alejandro, and then at Courtney, then finished by saying, "I'll look him over."

"You're wasting your time," Alejandro spat.

"No, she's not," Courtney shot right back at him. As she went to help Harold, the others all exchanged glances.

"I don't know what to do," Bridgette admitted to Trent, who was closest to her. "What… what if those things come back? What if there are more out there? Are they really… really zombies?"

"We're all pretty much in the dark," he replied. Bridgette could see his hand slightly tremble, though he was trying to clutch it. Trent had never been good at concealing his feelings, and she realized this must be him doing his best to hide his terror.

Without putting much thought into it, Bridgette grabbed Trent's trembling hand and squeezed it to try and calm him down. He looked at her gratefully, and she managed a small smile.

DJ walked by them, shaking as bad as Trent. "This just ain't possible," he muttered to himself. "We cannot have had people… people _die_!"

"Dude," Geoff said to him, "you gotta snap out of it! You're kind of staring into oblivion there!"

Geoff and Beth tried their best to snap DJ out of his shock, while Cody and Izzy tried to pull Sadie away from Katie's body. Tyler had managed to let go of Lindsay, but still continued to stare at her, the incredulous and grim sight still not fully registering.

"_Wasn't I just yesterday,_" he thought, "_trying to remind her of the good times we had? Wasn't I just trying to convince her to take me back? Now… now…_"

Duncan waited impatiently for Gwen, as she continued to inspect Owen. Alejandro paced around, passing by the punk more than once. At some point, he stopped next to Duncan, and muttered, "You realize she's going to get us all killed, right?"

"Watch it, _Al_," the pink growled at the manipulator.

"Gwen will insist on saving everyone, she's trying to spare Owen right now," Alejandro continued. "And don't forget, her fat friend isn't around. She's going to get herself killed, and you too if you let her continue this bleeding heart method."

Duncan stared him down, then glanced over at Gwen. She was still inspecting Owen, as Courtney and Harold watched. Actually, the nerd was trying to watch, but he had to squint hard.

"Are you going to be able to see?" Courtney asked Harold. "My sister once lost her glasses, she had a really hard time seeing."

"I'll be fine, I think. Don't worry about me."

"Are you kidding? You saved my life back there."

"You saved my life during the confusion too."

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, then he let out a small chuckle. "Kind of hard to imagine this… you and I fighting zombies together… it all feels like some video game or a nightmare."

"Definitely the latter for me, and well, I never thought I'd say this, to be honest," she admitted, her voice filled with guilt, which seemed almost as surreal coming from Courtney as the zombies were to Harold. "To be honest… I am glad you are here. Something like this happening, I know I can trust you."

Gwen walked up to the two, continuously glancing at Courtney, as if scared she would attack her any moment; the goth girl's suspicions were rather justified, as after Courtney's elimination, the CIT would lunge at Gwen and snap at her in her unrelenting fury. Gwen was too nervous to argue back, because she had thought Courtney would physically attack her if she tried to.

Still, after zombies had killed several people she knew and almost dying herself, her feud with Courtney wasn't going to keep her from speaking. "Harold, Owen doesn't look like he's been injured. No bites or scratches… could he still be infected?"

"Only if he ingested anything, like if some of a zombie's saliva got in his mouth," Harold said, scratching the back of his head. "Unless this is an airborne virus… it is possible we all are infected, and those with certain traits are immune."

"Seriously?" Courtney exclaimed. "We could all be infected? What kind of zombies are these, Harold?"

"It's impossible to tell. There are so many different types of zombies and infections," he explained to the two. "For now, I say if Owen hasn't been hurt by those things, he is safe."

"Thank God," Gwen said, wiping her brow. As she glanced to the side, she saw the body of Chef Hatchet. It was so badly mauled, she wouldn't have recognized the bad cook except for his trademark apron and little chef hat on his head. Courtney saw her looking at the body, and sighed miserably.

"Chef never gave up," she told the goth girl. "He fought those zombies as they bit him, clinging relentlessly. He must have killed fifty of those monsters… he was so brave."

"A soldier to the end," Harold murmured, casting a salute towards Chef. "I knew the guy had a soft spot, and he died defending us. I am sure more of us would be dead if it wasn't for him… Chris just ran."

"What, seriously?" Gwen declared. "That bastard ditched us?"

"He must have, because he's not around here, dead or alive," Courtney explained. "He must have run as fast as he could, away from here. Left us to die to those freaks… I don't know why I am surprised, surely I should have suspected he wouldn't do that. Chris, of all people…"

"I guess we all hope for the best from people when there's a crisis," Harold replied.

"I know… you two sure came through for all of us…"

Courtney realized who she was talking to: Harold and Gwen. Two of the people she should hate more than anyone, the guy who cheated her off the first season and the gal who stole her boyfriend. And yet, after the horrible ordeal, these were the two people she felt closest to and safest with.

"So, what are we going to do?" she asked them.

"I'll tell you what we are going to do!"

Duncan had approached the three, glaring at them. "We are going to get the hell out of here!" He beckoned to Gwen, adding, "Come on, we need to leave!"

"But… but wait," Gwen began to protest.

"There's nothing to discuss," he shouted. "Those monsters could come back any minute, they could smell all the dead bodies! We have to leave!"

He rounded towards the survivors, calling out, "We are leaving! Now!"

"No," Sadie wailed. She pointed back at Katie's body, shouting, "I cannot just leave Katie here!"

"I don't want to leave Lindsay like this," Tyler protested.

Cody approached Duncan, saying, "Come on, man, we need to give our friends some respect! They don't deserve to lay here like-"

Duncan groaned in frustration and shoved Cody, harder than he meant to. The geek was knocked over by the push, to which Izzy cried out in indignation.

"You big dumb, mohawked wienie," the redhead hollered. "How dare you!"

"Look, will you all calm down and think this rationally?" Duncan exclaimed. "We are on a strange island, we have no idea where we are, and we have _nothing_ to our name! No food, water, or weapons except for the branches! If we stay here, those freaks will come back and tear us all apart!"

Everyone was watching Duncan, as Alejandro nodded alongside him. The handsome manipulator stepped forward and added to Duncan's speech, "If we head down the beach that way," he said, pointing to the left, "we should eventually find some sign of civilization; if not, we will at least get away from all these dead bodies."

"We cannot leave those who were killed left to rot," Beth protested.

"That's right," Sadie joined in. "I will not, under any circumstances, leave Katie like that!"

She pointed at her friend's body, which sat up at the end of her sentence. Sadie froze as she saw her dead BFFF look around with glazed eyes, moaning a little before dead Katie saw her. With a hungry groan, it tried to pull itself up, slow and awkward.

As zombie Katie reached out towards Sadie, the others started to rise up. Justin, his once beautiful body torn up by savage teeth, stood up as it headed for the living. Heather and Lindsay advanced on Tyler, who was closest to them; sunken eyes as once soft hands grasped at him.

Chef's badly damaged body rose up, growling and groaning, almost as much as he did when alive. Blaineley, who had been feasted on and unable to fight back because of her bandages and casts, was crawling on the sand, looking like a starved mummy.

Gwen winced as all the dead people came after the living. She picked up a thick branch nearby one of the fire pits, trying to shelve her emotions over this. All that mattered was survival, and as she saw Tyler and Sadie paralyzed in grief, she realized it would come upon her to save them.

She heard Duncan shouting at her, calling her back, but she couldn't answer her boyfriend now. As she raised the large branch, she leapt towards Heather's undead form, letting out a cry of mixed emotions.

* * *

><p>Leshawna groaned as she washed off her face with the river water. She was sweating like crazy, as she and Noah had been walking nonstop. It wasn't like a normal walk, not a stroll through a mall even. The uneven ground as they walked alongside the river was like a terrible hiking trip.<p>

"Are we there yet?" Noah asked. "Seriously, just lie to me, tell me it's there in a half-hour. I'll trudge on for a half-hour, and then fall on my face."

"Keep whining, I'll mess up your face for you."

"Oh good, an appointment! I am so flattered."

Noah slumped against a tree, groaning as he flexed his shoulders. Leshawna finished washing up, glancing at the river and trying to imagine how hard it would be to swim across. The rushing water was an obvious sign of there being no chance at all.

"Okay, Noah, we'll be there in a half-hour," Leshawna assured him. "But do me a favor."

"Stop talking, got it."

"No, don't you dare. Keep talking to me, just don't be so negative. For my sake, got it?"

"You saved my life enough times to win that. Okay, I'll be very positive for a half-hour. … Tell me how to be that?"

"Why not talk about something that makes you happy?"

"Well, right now, all I think about as far as happy is seeing my family again."

"See now, that's what I want to hear, sugar. Tell me more about them?"

The two carried on walking as Noah gave a small description for each of his siblings. They were busy watching the trees to their left, making sure no zombies were lurking in the shadows; they really didn't want to be chased again, even if the zombies were rather easy to lose at this hour.

Noah was just telling Leshawna about his oldest sibling, who had a family of three kids and expecting another one, when they stepped on a dirt path. They almost didn't believe it at first, looking down at it as if it was totally arcane and out of this world. When they looked to the right, they saw a wooden bridge over the river.

"Holy cow," Noah exclaimed. "Civilization! A constructed bridge! We're not on some deserted island after all."

"Hate to break it to you, but we kind of knew that when zombies came at us, ain't no people dead or alive on an island no one lives on."

Noah stared at her, then burst out laughing. Leshawna had never seen him laugh so hard, it was almost surreal to her. When he managed to contain it, he sputtered out, "You nag at me since the start to be more positive, then you go all literal on me when we find something great! Girl, you crazy!"

"Hey now, don't you be stealing my phrases, string bean."

"Sorry, I cannot help it… hehe! Oh you are too much, Leshawna!"

Leshawna smirked at him, then glanced to the left, down the pathway. It wasn't a very long pathway, it ended at a little shed that had a large antenna. She raised an eyebrow, and started to walk towards it. "Now what's this? A storage shed?"

"Something like that, don't know what the antenna is," Noah commented as he looked at the long rod that reached up past the trees. "I doubt it's a cell phone tower or anything like that."

"Maybe it's a radio tower?"

"In a building that small? Well, I suppose instead of talking about it, we could just look in there."

Inside the shed was a rather small room, that came complete with a television and bed. A lamp nearby the bed with adjustable brightness gave them some light at long last, while Noah looked around for any kinds of supplies.

"What is this, some service person's hut?" he grumbled. "I mean seriously, there's absolutely nothing here."

Leshawna turned on the television, flipping through all the channels. Nothing on the news was of interest, which greatly annoyed her. "_You'd think twenty-four teenagers and a cast of a popular reality show,_" she thought bitterly, "_would garnish SOME news when a volcano goes off in the Hawaiian islands!_"

"Are you watching some bad American show?" Noah asked. "Come on, you don't want to watch most of what they make."

"Well, I know you're keen on not missing the latest My Little Pony episode," she teased him.

"I'm not a Brony, for God's sake! Now what is the point of this place?"

"I'm guessing it was for someone who was living out of the house, which is probably over the bridge," Leshawna theorized. "But my guess is now, young couples come here to bouncy."

"Seriously, not only do you have a dirty mind, but 'bouncy'? That's what you call sex?"

"It's what I call it around my siblings, I ain't gonna say "sex" around them."

"Well, this has officially become awkward. Let's just cross the bridge and see what's there, shall we?"

"Sounds fine."

They exited the hut and crossed the bridge, only to come into a rather large clearing and small village. Large houses with even bigger gardens speckled the area, with paved roads. Noah and Leshawna looked around incredulously.

"It's like a small neighborhood," Leshawna commented. "I mean… is this a village or a neighborhood? The large gardens and such…"

"Okay, now I'm just royally confused," Noah admitted. "I'm guessing there was a large plantation here or something, and _then_ it became a village."

"Maybe this is just a really nice neighborhood then," Leshawna said. "Well, shall we look inside the houses?"

The sound of a door banging against the wall made them both flinch and cry out, and they saw a zombie at the front door of one of the houses. The ghoul, with blood all over its mouth and hands, was looking at them, groaning in desolate hunger. Its teeth practically dripped blood as it started to shamble towards them.

Zombie moans started echoing around the exotic neighborhood, and more started wandering outside of the houses. All of them were covered in blood and gore, having feasted upon the home owners.

"Aw crap," Noah cursed. "We have a neighborhood party coming out, and they're all looking to feast."

"Run down the road and see where it leads us?" Leshawna asked.

"Start now!"

The two, despite all their exhaustion and frustration, started to jog down the road, away from the zombies that were stumbling out onto the sidewalk. Noah strained as he felt his body start to wear out on him. Leshawna noticed in time and grabbed his hand, pulling him along with her. He squeezed her hand in thanks, as he was panting too hard to say anything.

"_Damn it_," he cursed mentally. "_If only… if only I could hot wire one of the cars in the driveways!_"

The two rounded a corner to see the road carry on for quite a distance, trees on the left and houses on the right. Zombies were wandering around the lawns and on the street, speckled all over like visible land mines. A zombie child, no older than ten, looked up from the body it was was feeding on; its teeth, mutated razor sharp like the adults, growled in hunger when it saw the two.

"Oh, dear God in Heaven," Leshawna whimpered when she saw it. Noah could see the fear in her eyes, and realized it was his turn. Pulling on her hand, he led her down the road.

"So long as we keep moving," he managed to say as they kept jogging, dodging the zombies that reached out at them, "we're going to find somewhere that isn't infested with zombies!"

* * *

><p>Gwen seriously felt like puking as she stared at what she had done. Bile seemed to be in her throat, burning painfully, but she had her mouth clenched shut. Not to stop from throwing up, but to stop herself from screaming.<p>

Heather and Lindsay's bodies were in front of her, massive injuries to their heads. Those blows were dealt by Gwen, by the branch in her hands, the branch still stained with their blood. Heather's body twitched very slightly, but was still otherwise.

It was Lindsay's body that was making Gwen want to scream, cry, and hurl all at once. The sweet blond girl, who Gwen had always thought was so vapid but innocent, lay with her eyes shut, mouth agape slightly as her fingers curled into the sand.

"_It looks like I killed her,_" she thought. "_It looks like I killed Lindsay… it looks like I killed her…_"

She continued to stand there, staring at what she had done, until she hiccuped. Vomit came out in painfully hot spittle, but she didn't sink to her knees. Bridgette pulled her away from the body, saying words that the goth girl couldn't comprehend, though they sounded soothing.

Gwen peered over to the side, where Eva had finished off Katie's zombie form. Sadie had been hysterical and tried to prevent her, but Tyler held her back. It had taken all of his strength, but he had managed until the awful deed was done.

Izzy was standing over Chef Hatchet and Blaineley's bodies. The redhead looked frozen in place, the branch she had used still dripping with blood. Cody was standing near her, trying to talk to her.

Alejandro had finished off Justin, spitting on the corpse when he was done. Sierra had been taken care of by Courtney, and the CIT kept looking at the former fangirl's crush. Cody had only glanced at the terrible scene once, and wasn't able to look again.

Duncan approached Gwen, and almost wrenched her out of Bridgette's arms. Though the surfer girl was tearfully pleading with Duncan to stop, the punk wasn't up for negotiation. "Gwen," he said to her, "Gwen, are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" she weakly repeated, then shouted it. "Am I okay? How can you ask that? Did you see what I did?"

"You did what you had to," Duncan assured her. "You did the right thing, it was them or you. Don't worry, I don't think any less of you."

Gwen rubbed away tears from her eyes, though if they were sorrow or frustration, she couldn't tell yet. She looked at Duncan, hoping he could make everything better. Bridgette watched the two, clenching her hands in apprehension.

"Alright, that does it," Alejandro's shout startled everyone. "Now do you idiots see why we cannot stay here, God damn it?"

Everyone looked over at him, as he waved around the branch he had just used. "We stay here, we wait any longer, we die! Now get your collective butts in gear, and move!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

Gwen had shouted as she pushed gently away from Duncan. She stormed up to Alejandro, gripping her own weapon in her hands. "You amoral creep! We lost people here, and you don't even care!"

"Caring has nothing to do with survival, my goth _chica_," Alejandro snapped right back at her. "What, you want to stay here and get eaten by the undead? Be my guest, I don't give a damn about you."

Gwen scoffed and walked away from him, approaching Harold. "Before all this happened," she said, "I heard you talking about the direction of the waves. You think Leshawna is on another part of the island?"

"Yes, with the way the current was going," Harold said, squinting hard as he tried to gather his surroundings, "if you wanted to find her, like I do, you would have to go down that way."

He pointed down the right side of the beach, and if on cue, the howls of the undead filled the night. Everyone living shuddered, and Gwen squeezed her branch club. The moon was shining on the left side of the island (or at least, left as much as they were concerned), leaving the right side in shadow.

"Are you kidding?" Alejandro scoffed. "That looks like death itself."

"You cannot be sure that the other way is safer," Gwen snapped back at him.

Granted, though she didn't want to admit it, Gwen was very concerned about how dark and gloomy it was to the right. It was almost like neon signs were pointing DEATH to the right, LIFE to the left. Every instinct, from her natural ones to her horror movie inspired survival tips, said that the moonlit side of the island was better.

However, all Gwen could think about was Leshawna, who was out there and possibly all alone. Noah was lost too, he deserved a chance too.

"You have no way of knowing that more of those zombies," Gwen spoke again, glaring at Alejandro, "down that way. Besides," she struggled for an argument, and went with, "I'd rather be in the dark than a well-lit banquet for the undead to see strolling down the shore."

"You can go die then, I couldn't care less," Alejandro said back to her. "But don't expect the rest of you to follow you on a suicide mission. You have no food, water, a branch for a weapon, and you're going into the darkness to find someone who is most likely already dead."

Alejandro turned around and addressed the others. "Don't listen to this woman, people! You know she's a liar and is selfish, look how she operated on the show!"

"Oh, if ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black," Bridgette muttered, glaring daggers at Alejandro. She stepped up, and said, "And why should we listen to you?"

"Because I'm going to lead everyone out of here to safety! I want everyone possible so we can fight against another attack like that!"

Bridgette could see the logic in that. Divided, the survivors could easily be killed if another swarm of undead attacked. The surfer girl had barely been able to defend herself; she hated it to admit it, but she needed help against something so ungodly awful.

The dark side of the island seemed like certain death, but Gwen wasn't budging from going down that way. The light side of the island was being led by Alejandro, who Bridgette had been seriously hurt by. Gwen had kissed Duncan behind Courtney's back, and Alejandro had kissed Bridgette, manipulating it to look like Bridgette was unfaithful to Geoff, wrecking their relationship.

Before Bridgette could make up her mind, Gwen spoke up again. "Leshawna had on a life preserver when I lost sight of her in the ocean, and Noah was next with her. Leshawna is alive, and I am going to find her. I refuse to give up on my friend, so I'm not arguing anymore."

She sighed as she scanned the crowd of her former co-stars, then took a deep breath. "I'm leaving now, and anyone who wants to help me find our friends is welcome to come. Duncan, are you coming?"

"Hell, no."

Her boyfriend's words seemed to lock her in place. She couldn't feel her body, it felt so cold and numb. When she managed to look at him, the frown on his face made the horrible feeling occur again. Somehow, she managed to find her voice, and stammered out, "Wh-what?"

"You seem determined to go off to certain death," Duncan snapped, crossing his arms. "You have to admit that Leshawna is more than likely dead, and you, the horror movie enthusiast, are eager to go running off to your funeral."

"This is different," Gwen exclaimed. "This is real life! This is my best friend!"

"And you're asking me to go off and get myself killed over all this theorizing," he argued. The goth girl swore she saw him glancing at Alejandro a couple times as he spoke. "I'm not getting killed over you."

"What makes you think Alejandro is leading down a safe path? We don't know anything here, all we know is the moonlight is brighter that way! That's no reason to believe the way I'm going is assured death."

Duncan scoffed, shaking his head. "I cannot believe he was right," he muttered, mostly to himself, but Gwen overheard him. Before she could ask, he looked up at her and added, "You really have two choices here, Gwen: life or death. That way you are going, there's no light and the moaning seems to be louder. You'd risk that all for Leshawna?"

"Yes, she is worth the risk."

"Well, you aren't."

If Gwen hadn't felt cold and hollow enough yet, that made it official. It was like someone had freeze-blasted her heart, and she could feel the frozen bits of it sinking down in her soul. She had never felt so hurt, so betrayed… and yet, part of her couldn't help but feel she deserved it.

"Duncan," she managed to say, her voice shaking as she fought to prevent her emotions from being shown, "I… I just need you to help me."

"You aren't worth getting killed over, you or that loudmouth friend of yours. You want to go die? Fine. You are really stupid to ask me to do the same when I have a chance of getting out of this alive."

"But," Gwen's voice was pitifully small, "but, Duncan-"

"Just shut up and go! Damn it," he cursed as he turned on his foot and walked away from her, "I cannot believe how demanding you are, I thought you were better than that, but you're worse than Courtney! Wanting me to get myself killed… I should have known you would be a real bitch too!"

As Duncan stormed off, Gwen felt tears sting her eyes, and she couldn't stop them. An incredible hurricane of emotions was whipping around in her, the biggest betrayal. Gwen had sacrificed so much to be with Duncan, to kiss him when he was technically still with Courtney. She had fallen for him, his absence during the season making her yearn for him more, and then suffered all the abuse Courtney, Sierra, and Heather could heap on her.

She had taken all that abuse, both verbal and physical, and been eliminated from the show. All of that because he believed he was worth it. And now, now when she needed him most, he basically told her that she was worth nothing to him. After all that…

Alejandro's chuckle seemed to be timed right as she was thinking this. The manipulator finished his cruel laugh with, "Well, that about covers it. Come on, people, we need to get moving now, we don't want any more drama! If Duncan thinks Gwen is going to her death, who's going to join her?"

"Me!" shouted Bridgette.

The surfer girl approached her gothic friend, who was furiously trying to wipe away the tears from her eyes. Bridgette held her shoulders, looking into that betrayed expression her friend had, and it only fueled her outrage. "I'm not letting Leshawna die, and I'm certainly not following you or Duncan! I'm with her!"

"Me too," Trent spoke up, walking up next to the girls. He crossed his arms and added, "You're bad luck, Al, and I always knew you were a snake, Duncan."

"Fuck you, pretty boy," Duncan spat back at him. "What, hoping to catch your ex on the rebound? That ain't gonna work when you're dead!"

"Why don't you shut up?" Courtney exclaimed, approaching her ex-boyfriend. "Why are you being such a jerk?"

"Because they are heading off to certain death, and expect us to go with them!"

"I cannot believe you! You… you cheated on me with Gwen, and then you go and turn her back on her when she wants your help!"

"Hey, if she's dumb enough to go get herself killed, that's too bad! Maybe you should join her, _Princess_, you are that thick too!"

"You know what? Maybe I will!"

Duncan couldn't hide how startled he was when he saw Courtney walk over to Gwen's side and plant her feet. Even Gwen was startled, especially when the CIT added, "I'd rather be with her than you! You only care about yourself!"

Alejandro groaned at this. "Okay, this is just getting ridiculous! We needed to stick together, but these four want to head off their own way! Come on, people, you cannot be stupid enough to split up like this!"

Apparently, some of them were. Owen quickly headed over to Gwen's side, desperate to distance himself from Alejandro; the Latino threatening to kill the enormous guy was still fresh in his mind. Cody joined Owen soon after, as did Harold and Izzy. Eva, surprisingly enough, walked over and joined Gwen's team too.

"Fine! Fine," Alejandro shouted, glaring at everyone on the goth girl's side. "You bunch of Total Drama NERDS! Let us all die because of your stupid emotions! But we're going now, and good riddance to you!"

He turned on his heel and walked away from them, Duncan right next to him. Geoff and Sadie were soon following him, the former taking a brief look behind to see if Bridgette would change her mind. DJ, staring at the moon as if it was a reassurance it was safe, gave a sad look back to Gwen, and followed after Alejandro. Beth didn't leave the gentle giant's side, much like the entire time since they had crashed.

Tyler started to follow them, but then stopped as he looked back at his other friends. His eyes wandered until they rested on Lindsay's dead body, and he winced. Clenching his hands, he approached Gwen and said, "Listen, I want to go with you, but… but I can't…"

"Tyler, no one's telling you what you have to do," Gwen assured him.

"Just that, after Lindsay, I cannot let anyone else die. And there's too many people in the other group that need protection. Sadie, DJ… they're really fragile, and I don't want to let anything happen to them."

"If you think that you can protect them, do that."

"Yeah, someone on that team needs to be thinking straight. Look, I'll do everything I can to find you guys when we find safety, just don't give up hope, okay?"

"Tyler, you're a good man," Gwen said, patting his shoulder. "Thank you… watch over them, all of them. They're just concerned about survival, they aren't bad people…"

"You're too kind, Gwen. See you later!"

He turned and ran after the second group, almost tripping like Tyler was prone to do. As he and the others distanced themselves, Gwen let out a loud sigh and looked at those in her team. "Okay," she said, "we need to get moving. Everyone, just keep quiet so we don't alert any more zombies. They may be undead, but there's no telling about their sight and hearing. Right, Harold?"

"Yes. And also, there's the smell factor, wet humans are easy for the undead to smell."

"Well, don't this keep getting better and better," Eva remarked.

As the nine of them set off, Gwen kept glancing over at Courtney. She was trying to figure out what had made the CIT join her side. Didn't Courtney make it more than clear that Gwen was the person she hated more than anything in the world during the season? Shouldn't Courtney have been thrilled to see her marching off to her supposed death?

While Gwen tried to avoid being seen by Courtney, Courtney was trying to avoid being seen by Gwen. The CIT kept thinking to herself that she really, really shouldn't be feeling sorry for the goth girl, not after what had happened with her and Duncan. But for some reason, she did, and that had led to her decision.

"_It's going to be a long walk,_" both girls thought.

* * *

><p>Leshawna and Noah slammed the door on the zombie, though its hand was still in the doorway. Bones in the wrist cracked, audible to the living but unnoticed by the dead. The zombie's limp hand reached out at them, and they pushed the door against him.<p>

Its unnatural strength was helping it shove against the both of them, until Leshawna rammed against the door with all her bulk. "Noah," she grunted as she pushed, fighting the zombie's strength, "go get something… anything! Just kill this bastard!"

Noah sprinted into the house, looking around frantically. The two had ducked into one of the houses when there were too many zombies down the street. Luckily, the pack of undead hadn't seen them, but the one on the front lawn of the house had. The zombie had chased them, growling and moaning, and now was trying to grasp Leshawna with a broken hand.

While she fought against the wailing ghoul, Noah continued to search the house. He thought of large knives and headed to the kitchen, but found nothing dangerous except the usual steak knives. "That isn't going to work," he muttered as he hurried out to search the rest of the house.

"Noah," Leshawna's voice was determined but desperate, "this son of a bitch is really being giving me trouble!"

"I'm looking, I'm looking! Man, it's not like there's a huge selection of weapons in the house against a zombie!"

Noah ran into one of the bedrooms, looking around. There was a large cabinet, which featured a great many family photos on the mantle. Noah opened the large doors at the front, and then blinked when he saw what was in a glass case.

"Well," he said in awe, "there is a God after all."

Leshawna could hear glass breaking, then Noah came running up to help her. She didn't see the weapon he held until it was thrust into the zombie's eye socket. The steel blade penetrated the back of the zombie's head, sending blood and brains and bits of skull in a spray on the front porch.

With a death knell, the zombie practically slid off the katana blade as it fell back. Leshawna successfully slammed the door, then gaped at Noah, who held the sword in a rather samurai-like pose. He looked at her, then grinned. "It seems it is my turn to be badass."

"You mean these people kept a ninja sword?"

"Please, Leshawna, it is a samurai sword. See the curve? That is the sign of a Japanese katana blade. And they had it in a display… then I set it free."

"Guess they got it from a vacation in Japan, or something," Leshawna muttered. "I mean, it might be a good place to visit if you're in Hawaii, not as far as other places to visit there."

"We sure did luck out with this beauty. Now, let's see what else we can find in this house, shall we?"

The pantry and refrigerator were still full of good food, and so the two ate until their stomachs hurt. They also drank water and orange juice, feeling hydrated at long last. Leshawna had even found some store-bought cookies, and ate as many as she could.

As she binged on the sugary treats, Noah looked around the house some more. Nothing else seemed to be of interest, except for the answering machine on the phone; the light was flashing, and he wondered if it wouldn't be too rude to listen in. Feeling that they pretty much already did far worse in the house, he pushed the Play button.

The first few recordings were calls from friends, asking if the home owners, whose names were Daisy and Yoshiki ("_Odd_," was what Noah started to think before he went back to listening). Friends of the couple were desperate to see if they were okay, practically frantic in tone.

"Dude, I've tried your cell phone a dozen times, is it broken or dead or something?" one of them exclaimed. "Please let me know if you are okay, man! I know you two can take care of yourselves, but this… this infection, it's out of hand! We should get off the island!"

The following messages were as worried as the rest, and Leshawna walked up to Noah. The sister handed him a couple of the cookies, saying, "Man, whoever these people were, a lot of people sure cared about them."

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to listen to."

"Makes you realize just how much you take for granted," she mused as he ate one of the cookies. "You have friends and family who love you, and you don't realize it until the situation is dire."

"You like to keep being deep with me, makes me feel like I'm on a special episode of… you know."

"You are so totally a Brony."

"I am NOT a Brony! Why do you have to keep insisting-"

He stopped when the machine beeped and the next message started to play. "Attention," a voice that sounded official yet scripted said, "please pay close attention to the following message. The evacuation of Kauda has begun, as the infection has become too large to contain. Please come to Raccoon Harbor on the eastern side of Kauda, we have supplies there and first-aid.

"Please pack whatever you need, but pack light, as we will need to help as many people as possible. Boats will be departing at 10:30 AM, 3 PM, and 10 PM for the following week. As the situation is growing more dire, we urge you to come at once; the island is overrun by the infection, and you have no hope for survival on your own."

As the message repeated the important facts over, Noah and Leshawna exchanged glances. "Do you realize what this means?" Leshawna asked him.

"Yeah, someone was dumb enough to name a harbor after a raccoon. Who does that?"

"No, you goof! We know where to go for the evacuation! If it's still going, that is!"

Leshawna pointed to a clock on the mantle in the living room, which read 4:23 AM. "If we hurry, we could make it there, and let them know about our friends too!"

"That's pretty good news, but which side of Kauda is the eastern side?"

Leshawna tapped her lips, then looked around the house until she found the homeowner's computer. She turned it on, as Noah commented, "Oh, a Mac user! I hope these people made it, they seem like really good folk."

"Because they keep a katana and use a Mac?"

"Tell me that's not a sign that they're really cool people."

Leshawna chuckled, then opened up the web browser. As she went to Mapquest, she asked him, "What street are we on?"

"I didn't get a chance to check, you want me to pull over and ask for directions?"

"String bean, could you go check the address outside real quick? I'm not going to be able to find a way to Raccoon Harbor unless I know where we are."

Noah went outside to check, quickly reading the road sign and the numbers on the house. Truthfully, he partially wanted to use the katana again on a zombie, while the other part used rather explicit language at himself over how stupid that would be.

"44 Red Mantis Road," he told Leshawna as he came back in the house.

Leshawna typed in the information, and after a little loading and correcting, she was treated to a map of the neighborhood. Zooming out to see all of Kauda, she was surprised to see how close they were to the middle of the island. "It looks like that river we walked up on," she told Noah, "almost bisects the island in general. This is one small island."

"It has a lot of zombies for a small island."

Leshawna then attempted to find directions to Raccoon Harbor, which took a little time, as she didn't know the address or city it was in. "Should I put Kauda in under City," she mused, "since this island looks as big as a city?"

"You got me, I never had to worry about islands until I stupidly said to myself, 'Hey, Wawanakwa sounds tropical, why not sign up for a little show?'"

"You really do regret joining this show, don't you?"

"After all that has happened, can you blame me?"

"Come on, you made friends, like Owen."

Noah shrugged as he watched her try to find directions online. "Yeah, among others that I trust a great deal."

"Like who?"

"You."

Leshawna was surprised by this, but before she could comment, her attempts at finding directions had finally succeeded. A blue line connecting their hideaway house to the harbor on the eastern side of Kauda looked more magical than the Yellow Brick Road.

"Hot damn! Good work there, sister," Noah exclaimed. "Well, what we need to do is follow this route, and we should be there in… well, it's almost a two hour drive… man, it's gonna take us several hours to get there!"

"Are you forgetting about our friends?" Leshawna asked. "If we travel through the middle of the island, we're not going to find them on the beach!"

"But when we get to the evacuation area, we can tell them that there are friends of ours out there! C'mon, America probably has a whole bunch of soldiers and such there, they're evacuating one of the Hawaii Islands!"

"I still don't feel right about just heading on without trying to find them…"

"Leshawna, we are two people with only a sword and a branch against an island full of the living dead with nasty, big, pointy teeth. And if we find them, then what do we have? Almost thirty people with branches, one sword, and still on an island full of zombies with nasty, big, pointy-"

"Alright, alright, I get your point!"

Leshawna stormed away from the computer in a huff, to which Noah collapsed in it as he watched her sit in the living room. She covered her face as she sighed in regret.

Noah knew that she would be emotional about this. Emotion before reason was how pretty much all the women in his family worked, and his father too; he had always chalked it up as something that the fairer sex would be like, and all experience in the outside world, school and the Total Drama show, had proved him all the more correct.

Leshawna's desire to save her friends despite all the odds and danger was another case to Noah, but unlike most of the other issues of emotion over reason, this didn't annoy him. It actually made him admire her, that she wanted to risk everything to save those important to her. He almost wanted to abandon going to the harbor to help her with this.

"_Great, now I'm getting emotional,_" he thought to himself. "_Leshawna, you have corrupted me so… you and Owen._"

He groaned as he tried to remove this subject from his head, and started to search the internet. No news about the cast of Total Drama being lost at sea was posted on any major website, and not even on the sites about the show (which Noah had to look up, since he didn't follow the show even though he was on it). Also concerning was how there was no news about the infection on Kauda that he could find.

"The only thing I can find on Kauda is that there are rumors about this zombie infection," he said aloud. "Seems the fact that the island is overrun and being evacuated doesn't warrant any attention… must be more important things to be reported, like one of the Kardashians lost half a pound or Snooki learned a new word."

"Figures, it's probably being covered up to avoid panic," Leshawna muttered. "Hell, I'd be more than a little concerned to learn that the living dead are real. Canada might start packing as much as heat as the USA does."

Noah nodded, then did a quick Wikipedia search for Kauda. The synopsis was rather daunting, and he felt a great sense of dread crawl into the pit of his stomach.

Kauda was a heavily urbanized island, known for being a large vacation outlet. The population was over twenty-thousand, which sounded like it was overcrowded, but the article was assuring in that the island was spacious enough for all of these people. Even more could be fitted, and it was declared to be one of the greatest places to have a home in a non-metropolis city.

"Yeah, fresh air, good neighbors," Noah grumbled, "and a healthy serving of zombies. Come to Kauda, we're just dying to meet you!"

"Okay, Noah, ya big smart aleck," Leshawna said, approaching him as she picked up her branch weapon, "we should probably get going so that we can reach Raccoon Harbor before 10:30 AM."

"You sure you don't want to hit the beach to see if we can pick up your friends?"

"I want to, but if we have twenty-thousand zombies running around, we really don't stand much of a chance."

"Don't worry, we know for a fact that our friends are incredibly endurable; they survived the show."

Leshawna nodded, and as they started for the door, Noah did something incredibly generous that she didn't see coming: he offered her the katana. "You wanna use this?" he asked. "You are much stronger than I am."

"Sweetie, you're sure about this?"

"I trust you, Leshawna. Now please, don't make me get physical with you."

She couldn't help but chuckle. "Was that a double entendre, my dear Noah?"

The visible blush that he tried to hide made her laugh all the more.

* * *

><p>The beachside picnic was almost serene, like a picture for a brochure. Gwen and her companions were so taken by how nice the area looked, that they almost missed the dead bodies near the side of the area.<p>

Several dead bodies, zombie and human, lay in the blood-soaked sand. One corpse was slumped at a table, head bashed against the top. Several of them winced, while Gwen sighed and looked towards the woods.

"Hey, guys, there's a pathway up there," she pointed out. "That may lead to someplace with supplies and such."

"Or more zombies," Owen whimpered, tapping his fingers together.

Izzy tut-tutted, twirling a wooden shiv she had made while walking. "I'll shank any undead bastard in the eye if we see them. Don't worry, we're more than capable of handling a few of those dead heads."

"I agree with crazy girl," Eva said. "We can handle them."

The pathway led to a rather fancy looking spa, complete with a pool. Upon entering the building, they found a café inside as well. "This doesn't look like any kind of spa I've visited," Cody muttered. "I mean, I've never seen a café in a spa!"

"You've visited spas?" Izzy asked, giggling and grinning at Cody. "You funny boy!"

"I had a day job there once!"

"Great place to meet women, eh? I would have done the same thing, but I don't really need to meet women. Now aliens, I'd like to meet them, that'd be great, but I don't know any spa that serves extraterrestrials…"

The others let Izzy ramble to Cody as they explored the spa/café. "Hawaiians are weird," Eva commented as she looked around the place, "but I gotta admit… I like the scent of this place. Much better than rotting zombie!"

Bridgette and Trent found as much edible food from the café, and passed it out to everyone. Gwen sank into a chair as she chewed one of the snack bars, her stomach grumbling appreciatively. Courtney, without realizing it, sat down next to her as she ate. The two noticed each other after a minute, and then tried their best to ignore each other.

After a while though, Courtney couldn't hold in what was on her mind. She looked over at Gwen, and asked, "Why did you do it?"

The goth girl almost choked on her food, but managed to swallow it. "Wh-what?" she managed to say, though she knew what Courtney meant.

"Why did you cheat with Duncan behind my back? Why?" her voice raised, but she fought to control it. She felt all her anger burning in her again, her blood boiling, but she didn't want to lose it now.

Gwen sighed, staring at the floor. She had wanted to avoid this subject forever, hoping it would just go away eventually. But now, especially now, she realized it would be best to say.

"Because I didn't think you cared about him."

"What?"

Courtney's shout alerted most of the others, who came to check to see if they were alright. When they saw that it was just an argument, most scampered off to not be involved. Only Bridgette and Trent stayed nearby, worried where this would go.

"How can you say that?" Courtney exclaimed. "You honestly thought I didn't care about Duncan at all?"

"No, I didn't," Gwen replied. "All you ever talked about when we were on Team Amazon was all the things about Duncan that annoyed you, that you resented him leaving early… you weren't even really together, I thought."

"Of course we were together! How did you not notice?"

"Mostly because you broke up after Total Drama Action, and you two sure didn't seem to be getting along when you did have time together. It wasn't until…," Gwen trailed off for a second, then groaned as if calling out for help. "It wasn't until after I kissed him, that you started to talk about how much you liked him."

"That's… that's," Courtney sputtered, clenching her fists. "That's not true! I know I talked about how I liked him when he was gone! I know I did!"

"Well, if you did, I missed it. If I had known you had cared for him that much, I would have been…," Gwen trailed off again, grabbing her black-and-green hair. She grunted in frustration, and muttered, "I liked Duncan for a while, and when I couldn't see him, I thought about him more and more. And all you ever seemed to do is put him down."

Courtney glared at her, heaving in frustration and anger. She watched Gwen, who continued to stay hunched over in shame. "But," Courtney spat out, "you and I were friends! Why didn't you say anything to me?"

"I was too ashamed… I was worried you'd hate me for liking your ex-boyfriend… or at least, I thought he was your ex. I just wanted you to stay as my friend, since I was stuck on the same team as Heather again, and Sierra breathing down my neck to stay away from Cody…"

Gwen managed to look over at Courtney, her sorrowful eyes connecting with the CIT's enraged look. "I wanted to be with Duncan, and when I finally got the chance, I forgot about our friendship. I just went with my heart, and well, look where it got me… I became the new Heather, my friends hate me, and Duncan chewed me out in front of everyone and told me to go die.

"You sure got your wish for revenge, Courtney. If it weren't for the fact that I want to find Leshawna and save her, I wish those zombies had killed me when I passed out earlier."

Gwen slumped in her chair again, groaning in absolute defeat. Courtney stared at her former friend, and felt all of her outrage disappear. All she could see was someone who followed her heart, and ended up being burned at every possible angle. After all that happened, especially with Duncan's most recent actions, Courtney just saw someone she could only feel pity for, and guilt over what she put her through.

Courtney wanted to be angry. She wanted to be furious and hold a grudge like she knew she could. She could stay furious at someone for months, but now, over the greatest reason to be mad at someone, she couldn't anymore. Duncan had betrayed them both, and she had alienated a friend that she had wanted to keep.

The CIT couldn't bear the emotions, and she stood up to leave the room, walking by Bridgette and Trent. It wasn't until she literally ran into Harold that she felt everything let go.

"Gosh," Harold muttered as he rubbed his sore chest. "Courtney? Are you okay, is everything alright?"

The nerd hadn't heard anything of the conversation between Gwen and Courtney, he had been at the far side of the spa, looking for supplies or weapons. So it was rather shocking to him to see Courtney very obviously struggling with emotions, and even more surprising when she threw herself at him.

He had never thought Courtney would hug him, Harold had assumed for the longest time that she, even before he rigged the votes in TDI, hated his guts. And here she was, clinging to him as she shuddered to hold back tears. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back.

They stood like that for a long time, while the others moved about the spa. Eva and Owen explored the café for some more food, both of them still peckish. Trent and Bridgette tried to comfort Gwen, and Cody and Izzy explored the offices upstairs.

"You'd think they'd keep something worthwhile, darn it," Izzy exclaimed as she sat on the desk of the manager, twirling around her wooden shiv. "This is just really sad."

"Well, Izzy, I doubt most places stockade weapons," Cody said with a chuckle, "that seems rather insane."

"Why not? If everyone is armed, then no one can try to rob or hurt someone! I mean, would you dare attack someone or steal from them if they could have a broadsword or a couple sais on their person?"

Cody shook his head as he looked through the drawer. Izzy watched him, then grinned and laid down seductively on the desk. When Cody stared at her, she giggled and said, "I'm imagining I'm a naughty secretary. It's kind of exciting!"

"I don't know how you do it. I mean, we just fought zombies, we're on a strange island, and we don't have any idea what is going to happen… and yet you still manage to be your normal self."

"Ain't nothing normal about me, you know that," Izzy bragged. "But hey, I am scared like all of you, I just don't show it. I confront my fears with a battle cry, charging in there with my nipples hard as rock!"

Cody, who had been looking at the bottom drawer, banged his head rather hard against the top drawer. Izzy burst out laughing as the geek rubbed the sore spot. His blush was ear to ear, and he muttered, "Must you say such things? I mean, not that I'm complaining…"

"Izzy's just trying to cheer you up," she explained. Her face softened a little and she spoke more seriously than Cody had ever heard her. "You took Sierra's death really hard… I wish I could have saved her…"

"You fought really hard against the zombies, Izzy, you have nothing to be ashamed of," Cody assured her. "A lot of us are alive because of you."

Izzy sighed as she looked down at the floor, then focused her bright green eyes on Cody. "Well, if this experience has taught me anything, it's that you should do the things you want to, in regards that there may not be a tomorrow, or even an hour following this one."

"Seems to me you always lived like that, Izzy," Cody said with a small smile towards her.

"No, not about everything, but I plan to do so now."

Before Cody could react, Izzy grabbed his shirt and pulled him to her. She was kissing him before he realized it, and when he did, he sank right into it. When the kiss ended, she was staring at him happily.

"I have been waiting," she whispered, "so long to do that."

"R-really?"

"Well, yeah! But you were always on about Gwen, and then there was Sierra… Izzy always had a thing for you, and I figured since we're in the middle of a zombie-infested island with no real weapons like an RPG-7, I might as well let it be shown that I always did like you."

She pet his brown hair as she continued to smile and stare at him. Cody had always fantasized about something like this: a girl sitting on a desk pulling him in for a kiss and caressing him was like the start of a very sexy scene. "You know, Izzy," he started to say, but she placed a finger on his lips.

"Can you grant Izzy this one minute of happiness?" she requested. "After all, with how dangerous everything has become… and there's no assured way to get off this island, Izzy just wants to be with Cody. Is that alright?"

"In the grand scheme of things," he said, grinning and brushing her curly red hair, "I think I couldn't refuse a request like that."

She pulled him in for another kiss, and lay back on the desk as they proceeded to make out. This lasted a couple minutes, until an alarm pierced the air with intense noise.

"Oh no no no," Cody exclaimed as he parted from Izzy. "What did we do? Did we set off some kind of burglar alarm?"

"Who puts a burglar alarm on top of a desk?" Izzy mused, covering her ears. "Oh man, I cannot even get to kiss my crush on this zombie-infested island, everything works against me!"

As she lamented, she picked up her wooden shiv and took Cody's hand in her free one. They raced down the stairs to see all the others converging.

"Did someone try to open a safe or something?" Trent was asking.

"I swear, I didn't do it," Owen exclaimed. "Really! I didn't!"

Eva, standing nearby him, nodded. She was holding a lot of large knives, cleavers, and other utensils from the kitchen, passing them around as weapons to the others. As she did so, the others winced at the painfully loud alarm.

"Blame isn't something we need to focus on here," Harold shouted over the noise. "Right now, we have a loud noise calling all the zombies in the area to come towards it. We need to leave, now!"

The group left through the front door, and sprinted across the parking lot. As they were heading up the road, Bridgette noticed Izzy and Cody had not let go of each other's hands. Despite it all, she couldn't help but smile and ask, "Since when do you two hold hands?"

"Since Izzy got her ovaries in gear and told Cody how much she liked him," Izzy exclaimed joyously.

Everyone stared at her incredulously over that comment, except Cody who laughed aloud. Trent asked what was on everyone else's mind, "So when have you two been interested in each other?"

"It's been there since the first season, really," Izzy explained. "Izzy really liked Cody… he was the only boy who didn't act all scared of Izzy and such! It was so sweet, I couldn't help but like him-"

"This is sickeningly sweet and all," Eva interrupted, "but have you forgotten we are _running for our lives_? Stop talking about your damn love lives, we can keep hormones in check until we get off this damn island!"

"Live for the now, Eva," the redhead challenged her. "Because if you don't, you'll become a zombie with regrets, and that is… SHIT!"

Izzy skidded to a halt as the group came to a crossroads, well lit by the streetlights and blinking stoplights. The alarm was the sight of zombies wandering around the other three roads, crossing the street or gnawing on bodies that had been left there. Izzy's loud exclamation alerted them all, and they turned to see the living.

Hungry growls and moans filled the air, as did the nauseating scent of death as the wind blew towards the survivors. They turned to run back, but zombies were coming out of the buildings they had passed. The moaning of the undead had brought those inside out, and now all of them were hungry.

"Oh dear God in heaven," Bridgette whimpered, squeezing up against Harold and Trent, holding the meat cleaver Eva gave her. "There's so many of them!"

"We're surrounded," Cody noted, looking around frantically. "Should we make a run for it?"

"To where?" Eva growled. "There's probably more in every direction, and if we head back to the spa, they'll just follow us!"

"The wind is blowing up from the spa now, they'll smell us out," Harold remarked, watching intensely as the zombies slowly approached them. The smell of their rotting bodies made him want to gag and throw up, but he managed to keep his stomach in check. "We're going to have to make our stand here!"

Owen whimpered in terror, holding the metal rolling pin he had kept from the kitchen. Trent ground his teeth, and muttered, "Stay close, everyone," as he clenched his knife. Courtney and Gwen backed up, until they bumped into each other.

Both of them looked at each other, and saw how red and wet the others' eyes were; neither of them had had a chance to clean up after their conversation. Owen's frantic blubbering nearby them, along with Eva hissing at him to man up, only further reminded them of their argument.

As they looked away from each other, the zombies were almost upon them. One of the ghouls opened its mouth and moaned at Gwen, fingers falling out of the abomination's maw. Those bloodstained teeth made the goth girl wince in terror, and she called out to the girl behind her, "Courtney?"

"Gwen?" was the CIT's response as she watched a rather large zombie approach, almost waddling towards her.

"For what it's worth," Gwen said as she clenched her carving knife, "… I'm sorry! For everything!"

Courtney felt her fingers clench and relax around the handle of her frying pan. She swallowed, then replied, "I'm sorry too!"

The two girls didn't have another chance to look at each other before the undead lunged at them. Both of them, as well as most of the others, let out fierce cries as they brought down the kitchen utensils, from frying pans to meat cleavers, down on the rotting craniums of the undead.

* * *

><p>The second group continued to walk along the beach. Continuously, they glanced at the trees alongside the shore, but nothing was popping out at them. Only the very distant howls and moans of zombies in the air, so faint you had to strain to hear them, reminded them of their situation.<p>

Duncan and Alejandro were leading the group, with Geoff behind them. Sadie and Tyler were walking next to each other without speaking, while DJ and Beth were talking nonstop.

Actually, Beth was asking questions DJ questions about home and family, to keep the gentle giant focused. It was working, for the most part, and DJ wasn't in desperate need of comfort anymore. Still, that didn't stop Beth from holding his hand.

"You know, my brothers and I used to play hide-and-seek all the time," he told her. "And I always won! They could never find me!"

"With how big you are? That's hard to believe," Beth said, smiling at him.

"Oh no, I'm exceptionally good at hiding! If only there were good hiding places around here, I'd show you. If I am reborn as an animal, I will probably a meerkat; they're good hiders."

Beth laughed and snorted, though she tried hard not to do the latter. She blushed when she did, and when DJ gave her an assuring nudge that it wasn't that embarrassing, she blushed even more.

This snorting and laughing made Alejandro's eye twitch, and he cried out in frustration. "Will you two shut up back there? _Dios mio_, you're driving me crazy! Just shut your mouths!"

"Hey man, lay off them," Tyler snapped. "You're going to attract zombies to us if you keep shouting like that."

"You keep out of this, _tonto_!"

The sporto growled under his breath, and he glanced over at Sadie. She hadn't said a single word since they left the camp, and he was worried she had gone deep into shock over Katie. Tyler was still thinking about Lindsay, but his mind was telling him to focus on the here and now, to stay alive and protect the others.

"You know," he whispered to Sadie, "maybe we should have gone with Gwen and the others."

The BFFF shook her head. "Gwen is out there looking for her friend," she said, her voice drained of emotion. "She is more than likely going to die… we need to think of surviving."

Hearing her speak without emotion, so unlike her, nearly broke Tyler's heart. Unlike most of the others, he never found Katie and Sadie annoying. It was hard to hate such girly girls when you have three sisters who are all as girly as they can get. He just wished he knew what to say to her now.

"Well, don't worry, I'm sure they will be fine."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

Tyler glanced to the side, twiddling his thumbs nervously. "Um, well, I wanted to make sure this group would be safe, there's less people in it."

"But why? You don't like Alejandro and Duncan," Sadie reasoned, staring at him with mild curiosity. "You don't really know anyone in this group except DJ, right? Why'd you want to come with us?"

Tyler struggled with the question, trying to think of an appropriate answer. As he did so, Geoff, who had overheard the conversation, was now wondering the opposite about himself.

"_Why did I go with this group?_" he thought to himself, pounding his head with his fist. "_Why didn't I go with Bridgette? Stupid pride of mine… damn it! No… come on man, you made the right choice. They are all going to end up dead…_"

He was hitting himself so hard that Duncan noticed, and grabbed the party animal's wrist to stop himself. "Are you trying to kill yourself?" he asked. "Practicing for punching a zombie or something? What are you doing, dude?"

"Dude, I think I made a horrible mistake, and I cannot stop thinking about it!"

Duncan groaned and pat his back. "Listen, dude, you made the right choice coming with us! We're going to be safe, everything's fine. Chillax, will ya?"

The punk laughed, which only disturbed Geoff more. The party animal could remember the good times he had with Duncan, especially during the first season. He had always thought highly of him, even during the low points of TDA like Duncan's involvement of having him and Bridgette voted off. But after what had happened between him and Gwen an hour ago, Geoff wasn't sure if he liked this side of Duncan.

"It's not that," Geoff said. "I mean, I want to get off this island, shyeah. But… man, I never should have broken up with Bridgette."

"What, are you still on that?" Duncan said with a scoff. "Dude, she's just one girl. You felt the relationship wasn't going to work, and you broke it up. Besides, was she really that special?"

"She kind of was, dude. If you got to know her-"

"A sappy sweet surfer girl who likes widdle animals, I knew her well enough. Trust me, those kind of girls are not worth fretting over her. 'Nice' never gets you anywhere in life, 'nice girls' are just girls who want everything to be going their way. Bridgette was poison, man, I know you wouldn't be happy with a girl like that."

Geoff groaned, shaking his head. "It's just that… I keep thinking of the good times we had, flirting with her during the first season. Maybe it's because we are on an island again… I just am thinking of good times."

"Like when we put Harold's underwear into smores? That was great!"

"Yeah, I had so much fun with my friends then! Remember the times we had? Like not only those little pranks, but like with my other friends, like when Gwen and I bonded during the whole handcuff challenge-"

"Dude, stop right there," Duncan interrupted him, his face growing dark. "Do _not_ bring up Gwen, I'm serious."

"What? But… but, dude-"

"No, nothing! You shut up about that bitch."

Geoff balked, almost unable to believe what he heard. "Dude… come on-"

"No, I don't want to talk about her, at all! After all the abuse I had to put up with when I started going out with her, she goes and demands that I get myself killed over a lost cause!"

"All the abuse _you_ took?" Geoff repeated incredulously. "Dude, she went through hell too, you're kind of being-"

"I don't want to hear it," Duncan snarled. "Especially from you, dude! You broke up with Bridgette because of what she did with Alejandro, and we all know that he was the one who kissed her! So don't lecture me about giving some dumb girl a little slack when you yourself reacted just the way I am over less dire circumstances!"

Geoff opened his mouth to reply, but didn't. Duncan walked away from him as he stood frozen in place, letting the others passing him by. He pulled his cowboy hat down in front of his eyes, and muttered, "I never should have let her go… I was stupid… God, I was so stupid to not accept her apology… she shouldn't even had to apologize…"

He didn't hear the rustling in the trees behind him as he continued to lament, unable to think of anything but Bridgette and his poor decision. He even thought about Gwen, how badly he treated her during the second season; that overwhelmed and hurt look on the goth girl's face when Duncan shot her down an hour ago… it was horrible…

Geoff let out a major sigh, and thought about turning back and heading after Bridgette, Gwen, and the others. He didn't want to be with Duncan and the others any more now. As he looked to the side, he thought he heard something nearby, almost muted by the waves crashing onto the shore.

He turned and saw the gaping maw of a zombie, teeth bared as it went for his neck. Geoff grabbed the undead being by the throat, just in time, pushing him back with all his strength. The party animal's football training came into play here, grappling with the ghoul.

He let out a cry, which the others heard. As they looked back and saw him struggling with the zombie, they ran towards him to help. They didn't see the swarm of zombies coming out of the woods until they had been flanked.

About twenty of the undead, having seen them thanks to the moonlight shining on them, came at them. Alejandro brained one with his branch weapon, but only stunned it slightly. The others all jumped back and screamed.

"We've got to help Geoff," Tyler shouted.

"Screw it," Alejandro hollered. "Get out of here!"

That's when he saw DJ grappling with a zombie too, trying to pull it away from Beth as she screamed and uselessly beat the monster's chest with her fists; it was inches away from biting into her neck. Sadie was hiding behind Tyler, screaming in terror as the sporto held up his branch like a baseball bat. Duncan had already blitzed away from the scene, leaving the others to fend for themselves against overwhelming odds.

Deciding to take a leaf from the criminal's book, Alejandro muttered, "Well then, every _amigo_ for himself then. Good luck, losers-"

That's when the undead grabbed him, pulling him towards their hungry mouths. He viciously fought back, punching and swinging, but they kept yanking at him. The struggle continued into the forest, out of the moonlight, where Alejandro's desperate screams echoed into the night.

DJ managed to pull the zombie off of Beth, and that's when the wannabe snapped to focus. She picked up the thick branch she had been carrying, and beat the zombie's head, screaming at it. "Back off," were her words amid her furious screaming. The zombie's head was crushed, caved in by the intensity of her blows.

Heaving in desperation, Beth looked at DJ, at the zombies swarming at them from both sides. She snarled and said, "DJ, get behind me, I'll take care of these bastards!"

"But… Beth-"

"I'm not letting anything hurt you! Come here, you rotting freaks, you want to try and bite me?" She shrieked at them, adding, "I DARE YOU TO TRY AND EAT ME!"

From a distance, Duncan could hear the screaming, but didn't turn back. The others were on their own now, and frankly, if they weren't smart enough to run, then let them be eaten.

"_What is with those morons_?" he thought as he sprinted down the shore. "_You just have to run from these monsters to get away from them. If you aren't smart enough to do that, you don't deserve to live._"

"_Oh, real nice, Duncan,_" some tiny part of his mind chewed him out, despite himself. "_Just let people die so you can survive. Maybe you are the asshole others made you out to be… you just left them to die. You left everyone to die…_

"_Courtney, Gwen… you are just so concerned about yourself, you never stopped to think about them… and that doesn't just go for now, Duncan. Let's see if you can look at yourself in the mirror when all this is over._"

* * *

><p>"Part of me still wonders if this was a blessing or a real curse," Noah said to Leshawna as they walked along the sidewalk. "I mean, if we hadn't washed up on an island, albeit a zombie-infested hellhole, we'd have all drowned."<p>

"Yeah, no thanks to Chris," Leshawna agreed. "Seriously, that ass is going to get my foot up his, well, ass, when we find him."

"Assuming the zombies haven't eaten him. Oh, wouldn't that be poetic for them to save his stupid face for last? They'd try to eat his brains, but the amount of hair gel would make even the walking dead gag!"

The two burst out laughing, glad to have something to be mirthful about again. They had printed out the directions from the house they had held up in for a short while, and were now following them on foot. At first it was rather easy, but then when got to the long stretches of road, the zombies turned out to be more plentiful.

"Seriously, it's like some awful video game," Noah had muttered when they hid behind a building to let a small crowd of the undead wander by, "and I was never really good at stealth games."

The two continued to walk cautiously down the road, keeping an eye out of the undead. Any that did come their way, Leshawna got to test out the katana blade. And boy, did she have fun with that!

"I can see why you think this thing is the coolest thing ever," she had exclaimed after she successfully decapitated a zombie for the third time. "Because this thing _is_ the coolest thing ever!"

As they continued to walk, they continued to converse a little more about family and friends. Their debate continued until the road left the city they were in, leading into a forest. The trees were like a wall, with the street heading into the only gap. Needless to say, in the gloom of very early morning with nothing but a little moonlight, it was quite the foreboding sight.

"Okay, you know how in horror movies, the idiot characters go running off into the darkest, most dangerous place they can go?" Noah asked, swallowing hard. "This is it… this is the worst possible place I can think of: the woods. A zombie-infested, formerly overpopulated island, and we're going off for a walk through there with a sword and branch."

"You scared, Noah?" Leshawna asked. "Want your sword back?"

"Heck no, I trust you with it. And you know, Leshawna," he said, looking at her with a small smile, "there's no one else I'd rather be doing this with you."

Leshawna grinned right back at him. "String bean, I'm glad you're here too."

* * *

><p>Bridgette screamed in terror as she drove the cleaver down into the zombie's head. Again and again, the zombie flinched with each strike. The surfer girl could barely watch what she was doing, making the cleaver hits weaker and only good to take down one ghoul.<p>

The others were doing slightly better, some much more than others. Izzy and Eva were killing zombies left and right, the redhead shaking them through the eye and the fitness buff smashing in their heads with a frying pan; their tools were coated with zombie blood and brains.

Owen broke his rolling pin on a zombie's head, and hid behind his friends as best he could. The others were all doing as best they could, though the undead continued to come towards them.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," Courtney chanted in terror as she swung at a zombie. "Keep fighting, everyone! Keep fighting!"

"There's too many of them," Trent exclaimed. "We should run!"

Harold snarled in frustration as a zombie with no bottom jaw came at them. He was almost hypnotized by how the dead man's tongue flopped around. With a strong blow, he killed the undead being. Panting, he looked around as he tried to collect his bearings.

Everyone was surrounded, zombies still coming at them. Some were crawling, the survivors stomping on them. The nerd felt a ton of pressure, as he knew some of his friends here were nowhere near as aggressive as one needed to be fighting against the living dead.

"_I won't let any of you down,_" he thought, then shouted. "There's nowhere to run," he replied to Trent as he slew another zombie. "Keep fighting! Keep-"

One of the ghouls grabbed the nerd's shoulders. It leaned in, he could feel the putrid air the undead being exhaled on his neck. Harold struggled, trying to push the ghoul back… "_Oh God, I'm going to die… sorry… everyone…_"

A black blade slashed down into the zombie's head, almost cutting in clean in two. The brain halves leaked out of the split skull, and the ghoul collapsed. Harold pulled back as the corpse hit the ground, and the black blade struck another unliving.

The wielder of the blade, which Harold recognized as a machete, slashed and hacked at zombies. Blood and brain gushed out through the slices, and the assault never stopped coming.

All of the survivors fought against the zombies with renewed energy, seeing this savior at action. Eva was most impressed, and she polished off the final zombie. With a satisfied shout, she glanced over at the person who had come to save them.

"Thank you," she said.

"No problem, eh," he said as he adjusted his hat.

It slowly dawned on Eva just where she had seen that kind of lumpy hat with the fluffy bobble, though all was waterlogged. When the person turned around slowly, the streetlights illuminated his face, and her mouth dropped in surprise.

"Hello, Eva," Ezekiel said, grinning at her, almost sheepishly.

"Wha… you!"

"Are you okay? Is everyone okay?"

The others were all gaping at Ezekiel, except for Izzy, who embraced him in a big hug. Cody joined in too, and the three started to talk; the wild girl was also touching Ezekiel's face and hands, looking him over.

"You're all right now," Cody exclaimed. The home schooled outcast had his normal, pale peach tone. His hands weren't claws anymore, his teeth normal, and his eyes were human again.

"It's really funny," he said as he managed to pry away from Izzy, almost bumping into Eva. He turned to the startled fitness buff, and said, "Well, after I-"

He stopped when the gloomy, early morning sky was suddenly illuminated red. The survivors all looked up to see what looked like a flare or firework, the incredibly bright flash briefly casting the city in a crimson glow.

"Is that… a flare?" Trent asked.

"Looks more like a firework," Bridgette commented.

"Who would set off a "flare-work" when there are zombies?" Harold exclaimed. "Idiots! Zombies could follow it!"

"Zombies are following lights like that?" Owen asked. "I mean, I would… but I don't think like a zombie!"

Cody blinked as he watched the flare-work, or whatever it was, as he snapped his fingers. "Guys, I can only think of one reason why someone would set off a flare under these circumstances…"

* * *

><p>"… Looks like they are serious about finding the survivors," Leshawna noted as she saw the crimson streak in the sky. "Wow, isn't that risky?"<p>

"Could be, if these zombies are attracted to the flare," Noah commented. "Of course, they might just stare stupidly, or not notice at all. I really know nothing about this brand of zombies, since you know, since I'm such an epic nerd, I…"

He started talking with a lisp, as if he had braces and was a teenaged fanboy overly excited. "I know sho much about shombiesh, ghoulsh, and shinishter shcavengersh of Shedsh!"

"Oh don't be sho… so silly," Leshawna replied, chuckling. "But that's great, now everyone will know…"

When the wind blew, it carried the moans of the dead. Obviously, the dark sky being illuminated had agitated the zombies, and now they were hungry for flesh and muscle. It sent shivers down the spines of Leshawna and Noah, but both of them did their best to cover it up to appear tougher for the other.

"Damn it all," Leshawna muttered. "You were right… I really do not want to be stuck on this island any more! Boy, it's so ironic how many times I've said that in the past year."

"Makes me glad I didn't stay on the first one that long."

* * *

><p>The flare was big enough to cast a crimson glare over all of Kauda. The zombies blinked or groaned when they noticed the slight change in light. The bodies of the dead were bathed in red, displaying them in a horrid fashion.<p>

Lindsay's eyes were the only ones closed of the dead, which was best because those captivating baby blues had become ghastly white. Justin, in death, stared up at the sky, as if in awe of the flare.

Katie had been left in a gentle pose by Sadie, while Blaineley lay splayed, her bandages soggy with her own blood. Heather and Sierra had been left alone, though Cody had done his best to give the latter as dignified of a position, hiding as many of the wounds as he could.

Chef's body was still the worst, his stupid little toque and apron still the only the things to make him recognizable. All around the rest of Kauda, those that had been killed and their brains destroyed lay in bloody messes. The island truly looked like a hell, bathed in flare red.

The living that were still present on the island saw the flare as a beacon of hope, former contestants of Total Drama and otherwise. Some of them had reached Raccoon Harbor only minutes after said beacon went off. The military there, a combination of American and Canadian soldiers.

"There you go, everyone," one of the American soldiers said as he helped the family of five onto the large boat, walking up the board ramp. "It's okay, folks."

"God bless you," the mother said as they boarded. The solider smiled and walked away, passing the quarantine area. He tried to ignore the blood splatters on the plastic walls, from those executed after turning into zombies from their bites.

"Captain," the soldier said after he was away from that awful area, "we've already managed to board quite a few of the survivors that passed inspection. I have to say, I'm very surprised we still have some people on this island."

"Indeed, I thought by now, everyone living would have made it to the harbor," the captain said. "If it wasn't for that family you just escorted, as well as more coming, I would think we were here for political reasons… though then again, there's the news blackout on this."

"Strange how it all works out, isn't it? We even have Canadian soldiers, and… that cadet."

"Brick may be an oddball, but I'm sure he'll be fine, captain. We…"

The howls of the undead reached the harbor, and everyone shivered. They then flinched when a gunshot from the quarantine zone exploded, the surviving civilians of Kauda all huddled together in fear.

The blood was still dripping down the tarp of the quarantine area when the soldier stepped out of there with a smoking rifle. He removed the face mask he had been wearing, revealing a pained look as he ran a hand through his short, black hair.

"Sir," he said, "another one… turned. I… I had no choice."

"Cadet Brick, you have nothing to be ashamed of," the captain said.

"I… I don't know how much more I can take of this."

"Just stay focused, you will be leaving with this boat."

Brick nodded, then stared at the road that was leading towards the harbor. That was where the majority of survivors came from, though some came from the beach. Then again, that's where most of the zombies came from too.

"_If I manage to get out of this situation alive_," Brick thought to himself, "_I'm going to fashion school. I've had to kill way so many dead heads… and too many people who changed… I don't care if it's five… I cannot do this any more…_

"_Still… it's worth it every time we save someone's life… every life we save is sacred…_"

Far down the beach was someone who believed that his life was better than every other life, that his hair was more important than other peoples' lives. Chris Maclean, who had been fretting over his hair starting to poke out of place, had seen the flare.

"Oh ho ho, yes," he chuckled. "Yes yes yes! Chris Maclean is getting off the island from these freaks! This is perfect! I'm saved! I'm saved!"

He strut down the beach, humming the theme song to Total Drama, until it hit him. "Wait… what if someone there was a fan of the show?"

The handsome host tapped his lips, then cackled when a devious idea came into his always-devious mind. "I was the only survivor! That's it! Sorry, you talentless bunch of brats, but I'm taking the last boat out of here!"

He cackled again, marching down the beach as he clapped. "How about that? I'm gonna be the winner of the final season of Total Drama! The last one on the island! How about that! And it's better than a million bucks!"

Chris Maclean wouldn't stop laughing and congratulating himself over this idea, also planning how he could avoid any consequences for that volcano mishap on the other island. The host didn't want anything blemishing his record…

... As his co-host, fellow celeb host, and five of the contestants, because to his callous conceitedness, lay dead and rotting on Kauda's shore.

* * *

><p>…<p>

**To be continued.**

…

* * *

><p>Now, other than Izzy and Cody, no one seemed to have a lot of romance. Well, that's the beauty of a three-chapter story! I didn't want to rush anything, except with our lovely crazy girl and handsome geek!<p>

Still, I have to warn you, don't hold your breath for the next chapter to come out so quickly. I cannot always have writer's block on my novel.


	3. Walking Dead All Stars

**Disclaimer** - All rights belong to Teletoon, Cartoon Network, and the creators of TDI and TDA. No profit is being made in the making of the fanfiction. This alternate-universe episode of TDI contains stunts performed by written teens. Do not try any of this at home.

**TKN's Message** - This one was a long time coming, wasn't it? I know it's been a while, and I know most of you prefer that I do TDBG instead. But I promised CuttieArtGirl to finish this, and I don't want to break that promise to her; it's over-delayed as it is! And breaking a promise is the fastest way to lose a friend's trust…

_FOREEEEEEEVUUUUUUUUUR!_

…

…

…

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 03<strong> - Fight the Dead, Fight the Living More

* * *

><p>…<p>

Noah hated the outdoors. Especially at night, he hated being outside, even if it meant most people would be asleep at night.

This hatred double over the fact that zombies didn't sleep. It tripled when he came to terms that he was spending all night awake, and not over a computer game. It quadrupled over the fact that he hadn't slept, he barely had a moment to rest, ever since he experienced a volcano eruption, a hurricane, and nearly being eaten by zombies.

All the hatred could be pushed aside when with Leshawna, who he was becoming more and more grateful to be stuck with.

The two of them had been trekking through the neighborhood when they had seen the flare. At first, all was going well, especially since the katana they had discovered was proving to decapitate zombies (first was horrific for her, after that, she was uncomfortably comfortable with doing it).

A car crash had stopped their progress along the road. They had to deviate to a dirt road that led right back into the forest. Noah found a sturdier branch, and gave it a couple practice swings as they walked.

"Okay, I think I get the gist of it," Noah said. "Swing for the temple, make a wisecrack involving busting heads, and we're good."

"You start with a bunch of head puns," Leshawna remarked, "I'm going to knock some sense into yours!"

She said it more in jest than threat now. Deep down, she was glad Noah could joke about this, because she sure couldn't. He was a lot stronger mentally than she had ever thought.

That was the thing about dire situations: you get to learn who someone really is. Leshawna had learned that Noah, deep down, was more brave, loyal, and tough than she believed him, or any normal person, to be.

Here in the forest again, she needed that kind of tenacity. She had no idea that he was relying on her just as much for the same reasons.

Kauda's forests were amazingly dense, no matter if they were outlining the beaches or inland like they were. The trace amount of light that made it through was only just enough for them to see the path ahead of them.

Undead howls could be heard in the distance, sometimes echoing so powerfully that it felt like the ghouls were right on top of them. What made it worse is that their steps on the dirt path seemed to scream their presence out to the undead.

When one came out of the forest, reaching at them with blood-soaked hands, Leshawna went at it in a mixture of fury, fear, and anxiety. When she swung the katana, she missed its neck.

She instead slashed the top half of its face, slicing open both its sunken eyes. As eye juice streamed down the ghoul's face in the most macabre crying anyone had ever seen, she dove to the side to avoid its lunge.

The undead stumbled blindly forward, and walked directly into a tree. It even started to gnaw on the back, its limited brain power unable to quickly distinguish what it was eating.

Noah kicked the back of its knee, making it fall down on its rotting legs. Then the egghead lifted his foot, and bucked the beast against the tree. Teeth were smashed out in the first kick, and then the head caved in with the second and third blows. Huffing and puffing, Noah stepped back.

"I don't know whether to laugh or barf," he admitted, patting his chest to get his wind back.

"That was one way to finish him off," Leshawna said. Then she managed to smile, and add, "You just bucked him against the tree… are you sure you're not a Brony?"

"Oh for crying out loud, we're going there again?"

"Anything to keep up from having to deal with the madness around us, short stuff."

"Yeesh, fine," Noah muttered. He started to walk down the path again, glancing from side to side. "I just hope we're heading in the right direction of that flare, and not deviating too far."

"Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and we'll get through this."

He wanted to say something sarcastic over that, but he didn't have to energy, or the desire, to snark her at all. Funny, he never felt like resisting snarking anyone before. She was a first.

* * *

><p>"So, um, home school," Eva muttered, "how come you're back to normal?"<p>

As Gwen's rescue team walked through the town, the group was quiet for the most part. The flare lighting up the sky had long since died down, and luckily, one of the roads seemed to lead in the direction it was in.

They stayed on the sidewalk. It seemed stupid at first, especially with how abandoned the city was. But even with no cars, no lights, and not a living soul in sight, they had good reason to: the more spread out and in the open they were, the more chance the undead would see them.

"Pardon?" Ezekiel asked, shying away a little from Eva.

The fitness buff was having a hard time believing that this was the same boy who… well, actually, she didn't know Ezekiel at all. First she thought he was a sexist hick, then she thought he was an idiot who had determination that rivaled hers, then he was a freak who was mutated by his stupid decisions.

Now here he was, holding a machete in his hand, stained with zombie blood, and acting shy when she talked to him. He had just slashed down a bunch of those brain-munching ghouls, without any pause, and he was nervous of her?

Eva didn't know if she should feel flattered, enraged, or both. Normally it would be the second, but now, now that she saw death and was still in the most perilous situation she could imagine, she didn't want to rage.

"Your skin and such, it looks better than when we saw you last," Eva pointed out. "But that was only a day ago. Or was it two?

"Honestly, feels like years ago," Trent spoke up. "So much as changed."

"Darn true," Bridgette muttered. She had been furiously trying to rub out some blood from her jacket. Eventually she stopped with a frustrated grunt, and Trent tried to comfort her.

The two stopped when a particularly sad sigh made them forget their own troubles at the moment. Ezekiel was staring at his hand, which no longer was a feral claw. His skin was pale, with only the lightest green tinge to betray what he was before.

He felt his head underneath his hat, the last few hairs not much comfort. "Um, yeah, how bad was I when you last saw me, eh? I didn't have a mirror…"

"Ever see _Lord of the Rings_?" Harold asked.

"I… read the books."

"Try to picture what Gollum looked like, then. And you read the books? I'm so proud of you, dude."

The nerd's praise did little to improve Ezekiel's mood. He sighed again, feeling his scalp. "Do I, uh, look any better now? "We've just seen a bunch of undead bastards walking around, their flesh rotting off their faces," Eva said. "You look… slightly better than them."

"Eva," Izzy exclaimed, "be nice!"

"No, she's probably right," Ezekiel said, a small, mirthless laugh escaping his lips. "I mean, when I woke up, I was on this island. There was a treasure trove of mushrooms and fungi growing a little bit into the woods.

"I started eating, and it seriously helped me with the Vitamin D issues… I wondered how I remembered they weren't poisonous or anything, maybe I just ate them because I was famished, eh."

"We saw you fall into a volcano," Eva said.

"Really? That soo'nds dangerous," he balked. "Um, okay, I just remembered feeling rejuvenated, and I ate so many of them that my mind cleared up. What happened to me?"

"Volcano, remember?"

"I doo'nt remember that, eh. I doo'nt remember anything, after Chris locked me in the plane's luggage compartment-"

"He did what?" Bridgette exclaimed.

Her voice drew attention to a zombie inside a nearby clothing store, and a zombie that they had mistaken for a window mannequin smashed through the glass. The terrible gashes, and near severing of its left hand, didn't slow it down as it came at them.

Most of the teenagers leapt back, shouting in fear. Eva and Ezekiel were the only ones who weren't. The fitness buff swung her foot around, connecting with the back of the ghoul's knee. Off-balance, it fell down on its knees.

Ezekiel lifted his machete, and swung at the back of the ghoul's neck. With a cleaner slice that one would expect, he decapitated the undead being.

The two started at each other as the rotting head rolled into the street. Ezekiel stared at it for a moment, and said, "Maybe we should joo'st hurry to that flare, and then we can talk, eh."

"I'm with you, home school," Eva muttered. "But one more question?"

"Yes?"

"Where'd you get the machete?"

"Found it in this backyard, someone was maintaining a rather croo'ded floral arrangement… thick bushes, maybe used it with some passive-aggressive-"

"Yeah, that's nice, but I thought we were going to wait to talk."

Courtney walked over to them. "Look, talking or not, we need a plan. We cannot just go running to the area that a whole bunch of those things might be heading."

"They're zombies," Gwen muttered, not spitefully, just tired.

"I'm not calling them that," the CIT shot back. "I know you all have been calling that, but I don't want to hear it like if it's _normal_. There's a reasonable explanation-"

"No, not right now."

The goth girl approached her former friend, firm in her tone though exhausted physically. "We saw them walk when they should be dead. Courtney, trying to ignore reality won't help us. Trust me, I would know…"

Courtney glared at her, but her anger died. "But what are we doing? We're looking for Leshawna and Noah, and now we're heading to a flare? Are we about survival or rescue?"

Gwen was about to reply, when she noticed that the road they were traveling on had a dirt path to the south. In her head, she tried to think about all that was discussed on this fatal day.

"Harold," she said, turning towards the nerd, "didn't you say with the water currents, Leshawna and Noah should have washed up around the shore near here?"

"I don't know, and to be honest," Harold admitted, "I was thinking we would have run into them by now. They were either ahead of us, or far, far behind in the opposite direction."

Gwen swallowed, glancing behind them, then at the dirt path. "They might be where that flare was fired, or even further away from it."

"We got to pick what way we're going to go," Cody said. He pointed down the road, which was heading into the forest, a paved nature trail for cars. "I mean, this seems the best way."

"Though it is open," Izzy observed. "I am all for being on the road again, just hanging with my friends and Cody again, but when we got zombies chasing after our rear ends, I don't think we should go on the dirt path again."

"Clever, Izzy," Trent said, him and most of the others waving off the crazy girl's impromptu parody. "But seriously, Gwen, we might want to go towards the flare, instead of going out to search for Leshawna and Noah; for all we know, they could have been the ones who fired the flare."

Gwen scratched her arm. She couldn't believe she was thinking what she was, especially since she was such an horror movie aficionado. Every part of her plan would spell certain death for her; she was amazed that she wasn't dropping over dead right now.

"If you all want to investigate the flare, go scout ahead without me," she said, glancing over her shoulder before staring at the dirt path that was leading towards the dark, scary forest. "I need to search down this road first."

"Gwen, seriously," Bridgette exclaimed, the first to speak over the shocked party. "We cannot split up more! If you go alone, what will happen if zombies attack you? Why do you even want to go down there?"

"I have a strange feeling," Gwen said. "If Harold is right, then Noah and Leshawna might be traveling up this road. I need to go see if they are there, see if they are alright.

"Just go on without me. I'll head up that road after I check out this one. I just need to make sure, okay? Every road we've passed so far, to me, has felt like a missed opportunity; I'm not missing this one."

She approached them, and they could see in her eyes that she wasn't going to be talked out of it. "I'll catch up with you. Just go see what that flare was about!"

The group all exchanged glances, which gave Gwen the chance to approach Trent. The goth girl glanced at Bridgette, then whispered to her ex. "Make sure she goes with you and doesn't come after me," she requested softly. "Please, you keep her safe, okay?"

"I will, Gwen."

"Thank you, Trent. And take care of yourself too." Gwen turned and started walking down the dirt road, armed only with a blood-caked branch. Before she made it to the forest, two people flanked her.

"Like hell you're going alone," Eva commented. "Hell, I came this way because I thought you knew what you were doing, and if you want to go this way, I'll go this way too.

"And I think home school is coming with us because he doesn't want us women going alone."

Ezekiel blushed at this, and glanced away. "No! It's joo'st… joo'st…"

While he remained sullen, Gwen whispered to Eva, "Lay off him, okay? He embarrassed that Bridgette sees him like this; you know he fancied her before what happened to him."

"Whatever," Eva said, though not as dismissively as one would normally use that kind of word. "You think it's true, what he said about Chris locking him up in the airplane's luggage compartment?"

"Keep a contestant he hates in a place where he slowly but surely turns into a monster, so that he can abuse him further as his mental health deteriorates?" Gwen said with a bitter scoff. "Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't try it sooner. That man thinks he can get away with anything."

* * *

><p>"Aw man, you gotta be kidding me!"<p>

Chris had reached a dead end as far as the beach was concerned. A river was emptying out into the ocean, but that wasn't the worst part. On the other side was a collection of zombies, feasting on a dead animal of some sort; it was impossible to tell with how much they had already consumed.

With a scoff, the host of the show headed off into the woods, staying near the riverside. He figured these undead freaks couldn't swim, thus he had protection on that side.

"I swear, I'm not getting paid enough for this," he muttered. "I'd give a few of those lobster dinners back for having at least one helicopter on stand-by when the volcano went off. Maybe that way, Zeke would have been turned into fish food when he came shooting down."

He laughed at the though, and wondered if there was any way to get that kind of footage to air. No, real deaths would never be allowed on television, under normal circumstances. Then again, Zeke wasn't human anymore, maybe they could get away with it in a documentary?

Chris thought about that kind of documentary as he trekked through the forest. He would have to tell the story of how he bravely tried to save those stupid teens, but they all were eaten in the attack. If any of them did survive, he would just say he thought they were dead.

Things were looking up for him, though it was mostly his ego that made him feel so comfortable with the circumstances. It was his ego that had led him to believe there would be no consequences for locking Ezekiel up in the airplane's luggage compartment; he reasoned that everyone would believe the home schooled boy wanted to participate so badly, he stayed down there himself.

Chris hated Ezekiel, he reminded the host of smart kids when he himself was in high school. Smart kids were the bane of his life, as they could make careers out of their smarts, not looks and charisma like he could. It annoyed him greatly that ugly people could prosper.

That was also why he hated Gwen, and delighted in tormenting her. She was a smart girl who gave him sass, calling him out on his rules, his way of doing things. It was incredibly annoying to have to deal with that, when he, Chris Maclean, had made it big by doing things his way.

After this unfortunate shipwreck, he was going to start a new show, and abuse the hell out of the contestants. It'd be a perfect way to vent his frustrations about him, Chris Ma-freaking-clean, having to hike through the forest to find civilization.

* * *

><p>Beth stood in place, holding a branch that was caked with all kinds of gore. She was panting, staring at the collection of dead zombies with crushed noggins. DJ was shivering behind her, unable to move on his own.<p>

"I… I think that's the last of them," she said, in a voice that was so rough, she didn't recognize it as her own.

Tyler nearby collapsed. Like Beth, he had been swinging branches at ghouls to kill them, like a sick game of baseball. His adrenaline gone, he hadn't the energy to stand. Sadie rushed to his side, trying to rouse him.

Geoff threw up, away from the others. He had helped, but the smell had overpowered him at the end. He had thought being on Total Drama Island would prepare him for the gross and unbearable, but nothing could prepare a human being for his; not a sane one, anyway.

"We," Beth stammered, "we have to keep moving. Those things might come back."

"I need some help with Tyler," Sadie pleaded. "Could someone please help me? I don't think I can carry him."

When Geoff recovered, he hauled Tyler onto his back. Sadie thought of asking DJ to do it instead, but the gentle giant was shaking so terribly, he appeared to have forgotten how to walk.

It was Sadie that managed to get him going again. She took Beth's free hand, and slipped it into DJ's. She didn't know that she had given Beth the ability to carry on too.

They thought of calling out for Duncan and Alejandro, but abandoned that idea when they heard zombies from behind them, in the woods. They were hurrying again, keeping as much distance from the trees as the beach would allow them.

After a few minutes, they were right back where they shipwrecked. It was the only way they knew to go, to head in the direction of the flare. They all felt incredibly stupid now for not following Gwen, but tried to convince themselves that hindsight is 20/20.

Dead bodies littered the beach, the handiwork of the first group to make it through there. They didn't, however, stop to go to the spa, which still had a blaring alarm going on. They carried on, trying to ignore the sound of zombie moans mixing with the blaring alarm.

The five were quiet all this way. Tyler eventually could walk on his own, and he stayed close to Sadie. The trek made their feet throb like crazy, a hike from hell, especially with the grating sand in their shoes. Still, it was that or they would die.

"If I get out of this alive," Sadie said all of a sudden, trying to drown out the distant howls of the undead with a conversation, "I think I'd like to hold some kind of remembrance service for everyone that died."

"I'll do that too," Tyler said, patting her shoulder. "Good plan, Sadie."

"Heck, I think we'll all do it," DJ said, finding his voice at last.

"Assuming the rest of the world isn't like this," Geoff muttered. He kicked at the sand, saying, "Will we get a chance to mourn?"

"There's always time to do that," Beth said. "All you need is… hey!"

She pointed with the branch towards to a paved pathway that led into the forest. It had been hard to see in the bad moonlighting, and though the group didn't know it, Chris Maclean had missed it altogether as he had been walking and plotting.

"Shall we head up this?" Sadie asked. "It looks uphill, can everyone handle that?"

"You're kidding, right?" Tyler remarked, managing a little laugh. "We've been fighting the walking dead for the past few hours, and you think stairs are going to be tough?"

They all managed to laugh, and started to hike up that paved pathway, taking on the stairs as they came. At the top, they found themselves in a parking lot. It was connected to a road, one that was pointed in the same direction as the flare was.

"Holy cow," DJ said, spitting out a few more laughs. "We made it. We found a way."

"Let's go then," Beth exclaimed cheerfully. "We can find out who shot that flare, and…"

She trained off when she saw a rather large collection of bodies near the end of the parking lot, right out of the light of the streetlamp. They all hesitated to approach, but soon realized that the bodies were slain zombies. Someone had been here, and left quite a few dead heads.

Though the thing that caught Beth's eye was a familiar switchblade in one of the ghoul's eye sockets. After spending some time with the owner at the end of Total Drama Action, she would recognize it anywhere.

"Duncan's been here," she exclaimed.

"How did he do that?" DJ asked. "Did he really run back here when we were attacked?"

"The zombies were heading towards us, like some kind of 'wrong way' trap," Tyler noted. "He double-backed long before us, and… and…"

He trailed off when he noticed something sitting down on a tree, on the opposite side of them. It didn't appear to be just another zombie casualty, not with how it was still writhing around. The person's back was to them, and Tyler saw something rather unnerving.

A trail of blood that started at the collection of dead bodies led to that being that was leaning against the tree.

Tyler sprinted forward, finding new energy in his feet. The others all approached too, thought the sporto spoiled the surprise.

"Duncan," he shouted.

"Quit, jock boy," the punk muttered, glancing up at Tyler. "If there are more around, you'll alert them here."

Duncan hissed in pain as he tried to adjust himself, and the sporto could see why he had been writhing so much. The punk was using his lighter to try and cauterize a major bite wound on his leg. He didn't seem to be succeeding, unable to bring the fire close enough to his bleeding injury.

"Aw hell," Duncan groaned, "I thought I could do this. Guess I'm not as tough as I thought."

"Hey, come on man," DJ said, walking up to his friend's side. "Let's get you out of here."

Duncan barked out a laugh, then glanced up at him. DJ tried not to recoil when he saw the punk's face, but he did so anyway. They all gasped when they saw the bloody scratches, mixed with a fair share of blood, over his face.

"You really think I'm going to make it out of here?" he asked. "The fuckers bit me several times. Got a couple on my back, my legs… this one won't stop bleeding."

"Don't you dare give up," Beth ordered him, putting on her best tough face. She knelt down in front of him, and said, "You saw that flare, right? We're going to take you there, and-"

"Stop. I cannot even feel my legs."

The punk glanced down at them, as if seeing old friends passing away from his eyes. He groaned and rested his head against the tree. "I really, really fucked up. Should have stayed with someone… should have been with you all… we could have handled them together-"

"Dude, stop talking like that," Geoff pleaded. "We cannot leave you here."

"I cannot believe you still care, after all I said and did," Duncan muttered. "I ditched you guys, left you to die. You should be laughing at me… go on, laugh! I'm going to die because I'm a fu-"

He coughed, hard, spitting up blood. Sadie grabbed his shoulders to make him stop spasming, and he dropped his lighter. When she picked it up to give it to him, he weakly pushed her hand away.

"Like I said, ain't gonna make it. I can feel it."

"Dude, no," DJ whimpered. Tears were stinging his eyes, and he wasn't the only one.

"I'm not letting you die here," Beth exclaimed.

Duncan shivered. "I'm losing feeling all over. And we all know what's going to happen. Will you just go? Get the hell out of here, and save yourselves… just leave me, I ain't worth it now."

"Everyone's worth it," Geoff exclaimed. He stooped down to pick up his friend, but a scream of pain from Duncan made him stop. The party animal noticed then and there how mauled his friend's side was, and blood was pooling there too.

"Just go… tell my family, if you see them, that I will miss them, kay?" Duncan said, wincing through the pain. He hacked up more blood, and added, "And… tell Gwen… tell Courtney too… man, dying sure makes you reflect on life, you know? Stupid-ass me, taking this long to realize things…

"Tell them… I'm sorry. I should have handled things better. I was just… being me. Sorry…"

With these words, he shivered violently, coughed, and then his body appeared to be going into shock. They tried to rouse him, but he didn't respond. And then, he was gone. No pulse, no response, nothing.

They hurried on their way. They didn't want to be there when he turned, or they'd have to deal with his zombie; after that, none of them were capable of hurting Duncan.

* * *

><p>The splinter group from Gwen's expedition walked up that road that felt like a giant death trap. With thick forest on both sides, and zombie corpses littering the ground on the way there, they wondered in fear how many groups had made it through alive.<p>

No zombies had attacked them along the way, which brought a terrible idea that they were due.

"I sure hope we're making the right decision," Bridgette said. "I just keep thinking about going back for her… I cannot believe we aren't… that I'm not-"

"Calm down, it's okay," Trent assured her. "We're going to find help for her, that's what we can do."

"I know it feels bad," Courtney said, "but if we find whoever's there, we might find real help for Gwen, and the others."

"Besides, she's got Eva and Ezekiel," Cody said. "Those two will easily keep her safe from any ghouls."

"And vice versa," Izzy chimed in. "I think they will be safest with her, she's got some awesome mojo. Eva too! And Zeke's a cool cat, he'll do right by her."

The group was quiet for a moment, then Harold spoke up. "Izzy, when you said 'Zeke will do right by her', you did mean Gwen, didn't you?"

"Of course, who did you think I meant?"

The group's silence spoke volumes to the eccentric redhead. "Oh come on! Just because I'm mushy with Cody now doesn't mean I think only of romance like I'm some kind of funny-headed shipping maniac! Back me up on this, Big-O, I'm not a crazy romantic, just crazy!"

When no response came, she asked, "Big-O? Owen? C'mon, I need you to back me up."

The silence persisted. They all stopped and looked around for a very large teenager that should be there. He wasn't.

"Where did he go?" Bridgette almost shouted in her terror. "How did we lose him?"

"How is right," Courtney exclaimed. "How do we lose track of that big guy? It doesn't seem possible!"

"Did he go with Gwen without telling us?" Trent asked. "Oh man, what was he thinking?"

"Everyone calm down," Cody cried out. "It won't do us much good if we stand around here shouting-"

"FREEZE!"

"I don't want to shout freeze," Izzy protested. "I want to shout, 'Owen, where the blue bloody blazes did you go?!'"

"Everyone hold it!"

Izzy glanced at her friends, who were all holding up their hands and staring at something down the road. She turned to see three soldiers, pointing assault rifles, at them.

"Hi," she said cheerfully, waving.

"Hold still there," the soldier in the middle ordered her. "Don't make sudden movements!"

"Can I still breathe?" Izzy asked oh-so-innocently. "I mean, if I gasp, that's a sudden movement-"

"Can the chitchat, red!"

"My name's not Red!"

"I said-"

"Calm down, Keith," the soldier on the right said. "It's obvious she's fine if she's joking at a time like this."

"I'd say the exact opposite!"

The right soldier sighed and approached the teens. "Have any of you been bitten?"

"No," Bridgette managed to speak, still keeping her hands up. "Please don't shoot, we're not infected!"

"We just need to take you back to base to verify that. Walk slowly now, with us."

The walk to the marine base was tedious, to say the least. The only distraction was Izzy, who kept asking the soldier addressed as Keith all kinds of questions ("You got any tear gas?" "Is the Air Force bomb this place?" "Keith's a boring name, can I call you Bob?")

The marine base at the harbor was quite the spectacle. Zombies were heading up the beach, and armed soldiers were taking care of them. Canadian and USA troops, uniforms recognized by Harold, were using their melee weapons, and guns with silencers, to dispatch the wandering dead.

"What's Canada's military doing here?" Harold asked the leading soldier. "Did they hear about our shipwreck?"

"Y'all got shipwrecked?" the soldier asked. "Damn, talk about shitty luck!"

"Yeah, you don't have to tell us twice."

"Well, this epidemic is getting rather tense, and Canada has been asked to help with some of the troops. I don't know all the details, but maybe it has to do with a large amount of Canadians who fled to Kauda when sightings of undead were discovered on your west coast."

"No," Courtney exclaimed. "They're on the continent?!"

"Very few sightings these days, but I have had to fight some there. Now come on, we need to check you all for wounds."

Past the sandbag barricades and chain-link fences that had been set up in a surprisingly sturdy defense, they were led to a part of the camp that appeared to be the medical section. Though one glimpse of a tent that had blood soaking on the inside walls made all of them panic.

"Cadet Brick," Keith shouted, "get your ass out here and handle these newcomers!"

The cadet stepped out of one of the tents, one not caked with blood thankfully. His eyes widened, and he exclaimed, "Hey, this is the cast of Total Drama! What the hell are you all doing here?"

"Chris Maclean got us shipwrecked," Trent said. "But listen, we need your help, there's no time to lose!"

"We have some friends back out there," Bridgette exclaimed. "Please, we need you go help them-"

"We cannot go out there," one of the soldiers said. "Kauda is a heavily-populated island, and it's a death trap out there, even as well-prepared as us."

Bridgette paled, and gripped Trent in her grief. Cody also almost collapsed, and Izzy had to help steady him. Harold glared at the soldier, who shrugged and said, "Well, I'm just saying that you all are extremely lucky to be alive. What, these friends of yours from that show?"

"Enough talk," Keith exclaimed. "Brick, get them prepped for cleaning and inspection, we don't have much time! The boat is leaving soon, remember?"

Brick nodded, saluted, then turned to the camper survivors. "Okay, everyone, we're going to need you in this tent here."

He led them to a particularly large tent, one free of bloodstains, and pointed to a few stalls. "On the far left are some replacement clothes. Pick out your size, set them on the table outside the shower stall, and then throw your bloody clothes out before you start scrubbing up."

"Wait, we're showering here?" Courtney balked. "With no doors?"

"Decency is something to be sacrificed in these conditions, sorry," Brick apologized. "We only have two shower stalls, so two at a time."

"Why do you want our bloody clothes?" Bridgette asked.

"We have to burn them. Blood from zombies, which you obviously have all over you all, is highly infectious. I don't think you all want those clothes back anyway, right?"

They all nodded somberly, and Brick gestured towards the stalls again. Cody was pulled over by Izzy, who suggested they share a shower stall together, just to see the big blush on his face.

"When you all are done," Brick said, loud enough for Izzy and Cody to hear as well, just wrap a towel around yourself, and come to the other end of the tent. We have a couple field medics, one woman and one man, for inspection. Sorry again, but we need to make sure you're not bitten."

"Some of us are injured, but not bitten or scratched," Harold said. "What's going to happen?"

"If the medic feels your injury is of concern, I'm to watch you to make sure no changes happen."

"And," Courtney dared to ask, though she resented herself for doing so, "if we do change?" Brick paled, and looked away. "It's… not going to take long. We have to do this, to make sure infected people don't try to sneak onto the ship; we cannot risk the survival of the others, or the troops-"

"What happens," Courtney repeated, stronger this time, "if we start to change?"

The young soldier swallowed, as if fighting the urge to throw up. "I… I promise to watch over you, and give you every chance to fight this virus. But if you don't… I'll put you out of your misery, so that you don't become one of them."

The silence that followed brought even Izzy down. She and Cody were preparing for the shower, as Brick instructed, "Wash your hair thoroughly. Make sure not to let blood get in your mouth, or if you can avoid it, in your eyes and nose. It's not a sure thing, but please don't take any chances."

Bridgette collapsed in a chair, with Trent trying to comfort her. The surfer girl had broken into tears at all this, the idea that her friends were out there without help coming for them. Courtney walked away from them, trying not to think of the inevitable.

Only Harold remained calm, and turned to Brick. "How long does it take someone infected to turn?"

Brick drummed his fingers on his crossed arm, sighing heavily. "It ain't like the movies, man. Well, the movies do vary in ways, don't they?"

"Everyone has an idea how the virus works fictionally. How's this real one work?"

"Depending on how much they've been bitten, I'd say between one and three hours," Brick said. "Most people just start to lose their energy, then parts of their body, like their legs and arms, lose feeling.

"After that, they slip into a coma or shock or something, and die. But… it isn't always that easy."

"How is death ever easy?" Courtney snapped angrily.

"Because when they die, they die at least without much pain or suffering. There are different cases."

"What do you mean?" Harold asked.

"Well, I've had to deal with some people who were infected, but they were violently against being restrained. They'd fight us, screaming that we couldn't treat them like that. And…"

Brick shivered violently, enough to make all of the teens realize just how serious he was. "They'd change. Instead of going numb and into a coma, they'd fly into a rage that only grew. They'd try to bite people, claw at them to escape. And if they weren't killed resisting, they would start to convulse, die, and then come back."

Harold winced. "You're telling me this kind of zombie virus paralyzes those that are weakened by it, and strengthens those who fight it?"

"It makes no sense, I know."

"Actually, it does."

"How so?" Courtney asked. Her voice wavered, like if she didn't know whether to be impressed or angered by Harold's statement. She stared at him, a look on her face that he never thought he would see on her: confusion mixed with hope of understanding.

"A virus does all it can to survive and spread," Harold explained. "When it infects a host, it only thinks of spreading to other hosts. Lifeforms that are weakened by the virus's effects are killed by putting it down with numbness, to prevent it from finding a way to stop the virus.

"But if the host is acting aggressive, adrenaline rushing through the veins and making him or her like a beast, the virus is either tricked or taking advantage of this. If the host infects others during the rage, the virus spreads."

"That's… horrifying to think about," said Courtney.

"It's just a theory."

"But it's a good one, Harold, don't dismiss it so quickly."

"Wait dude," Brick said, holding up a hand. "You're telling me that this virus is knowingly spreading itself? Is it… is it the reason people try to hide their wounds?"

"If people are aggressive when it comes to that, the virus might be fueling the illusion that they can survive the bite," Harold theorized. He glanced out of the tent, and muttered, "I'd sure hate to think of what would happen if there were more people out there, trying to fight off anyone who stopped them from something because they were bitten.

"Only rats try to hide something as fatal and dangerous as this. And a cornered rat is one of the most lethal creatures in this world."

* * *

><p>Leshawna was starting to worry about the katana's cutting power. It had taken three swings to properly decapitate a ghoul, and she wasn't going to blame it on the fat zombie's neck.<p>

"That undead man made Owen look like a twig, Leshawna," Noah was trying to assure her. "Look, sometimes, you don't get it at the right angle. Don't start worry about it, okay?"

"You sound more like you're trying to convince yourself than me," she muttered.

"Let me put it this way then: even if the sword is starting to get dull, you're still going to do better with it than me."

Leshawna let out a small laugh, and pat his shoulder. "Now c'mon, no need to boost my ego. I thought you were the king of put-downs."

"Dethroned temporarily," he said, miming throwing a crown off of his head. "I will rise again when the world around me returns to being less negative than me."

"Dang, almost makes me want to see it stay negative, just to see you nicer, string bean."

"Haha, you're so funny, but don't think you can usurp me even if I'm-"

He stopped mid-sentence when he could hear something in the distance. When both he and Leshawna remained quiet, they could hear it much more clearly: a rushing river, up ahead.

They broke into a light jog forward, terrified at the thought that they might be cut off by a large river and have to deviate from the trail. What was actually there was ambiguous in terms of how they felt about it.

The river rushed in a deep valley, the water churning from all the rocks and rugged edges of the cliffs, making it one frothy, raging stream. A rope bridge, one professionally built, connected the two sides.

"Okay, you first or me?" Noah asked, trying to hide his fear.

"You aren't scared, are you? This bridge looks very secure."

"Yeah, well, with how this day has been going, forgive me if I feel like there's a jinx haunting me."

Leshawna sighed as she silently agreed with him. "I'll go first, and alone, if you're afraid of it collapsing."

"I wasn't implying that-"

"Better safe than sorry."

Leshawna started the trek across the bridge, going rather slowly. She looked down, she really wish she hadn't done that. Part of her couldn't help but be fascinated by the rushing river, the steady stream of nature making her forget the God-forsaken, walking corpses. She was gripping the bridge's handrail rope with only one hand, clutching the katana tightly as if it would steady her.

The bridge seemed to extend in miles when she started walking it. Noah was glancing around behind him, hoping there wasn't going to be a swarm of zombies coming up after them. He also strained to see if they were on the other side.

When he saw movement, he nearly freaked. The scream that left his mouth that was intended as a warning to Leshawna, came up much more high-pitched than he would ever care to admit… again.

"In front of you," he was shrieking. "Leshawna! Leshawna! Stop looking down, damn it, forward!"

Somehow, she heard him, and looked ahead. She could see some figures up at the other side of the bridge. Squinting, she tried to make out who they were.

"I think I really do need glasses," she muttered. "Is that more zombies-"

"LESHAWNA!"

She'd recognize that raspy voice anywhere, and her heart stopped sinking into her stomach to soar. "Gwen," she shouted back. "Gwen, is that you?"

"Oh my God, it is you!" Gwen couldn't hold back her elation, practically crying as she called out to her. "Oh thank God! You made it!"

"Girl, when I get over there, I'm gonna hug the hell out of your scrawny, white butt!"

Gwen glanced at Ezekiel and Eva, who gestured for her to go on. The goth girl started to walk down the bridge.

"Wait, careful," Leshawna called out. "Rope bridge and all!"

"It's sturdy enough!"

As she hurried towards her best friend, Gwen's travel companions exchanged a look. "Well, gotta thank you for this, home school," Eva muttered, staring at the reunion in the making. "You certainly came through to save our asses."

"I, um, I did my best, eh."

"Hey, take it from me, if someone pays you a compliment, you take it and like it-"

A rock was bashed against the back of Eva's head, knocking her to the ground. Her vision went dull, and she couldn't even think straight, as she collapsed and curled up defensively, hand on her bloody wound.

Before Ezekiel could react, the bloody rock was chucked at him. He ducked at the last moment, and then saw Alejandro baring down on him.

"Fucking zombies," he shouted, lunging at Ezekiel. The home schooled boy lifted the machete in defense, but as he recognized the manipulator, he didn't strike. Thus, Alejandro grabbed his wrist and tried to wring the blade from his hands.

"What are you doing?" Ezekiel screamed, alerting Gwen and Leshawna. "We're not dea-"

Alejandro kicked him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him as he successfully pried the machete from Ezekiel's hands. He raised the blade, staring viciously at the fellow teenager. Ezekiel could barely recognized him as a human being with a good look.

Blood and gore stained Alejandro's clothing all over, his hair torn short or out. Scratches covered his face and arms, and he had terrible wounds on his sides, legs, and shoulders. Though all of that was rather unimportant to Ezekiel, as the fire in the manipulator's eyes shot fear deep in his heart.

Alejandro heaved deep breaths, unable to hear Gwen's desperate screams. He managed to snap out of his bloodlust long enough to notice Ezekiel wasn't undead. "What? Oh, you, the monster," he spat. "Guess I have to put you down-"

"Alejandro, stop," Gwen was screaming. "We're not infected! Stop, Ezekiel's not infected!"

The manipulator glanced at the goth girl as she made it back to land. Leshawna was clinging to the bridge, trying to keep her balance as Gwen had unintentionally shook up the ropes when she sprinted back.

"Oh, you," Alejandro snarled at Gwen. "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing, what are _you_ doing?" she screamed at him. "You attacked Eva and Ezekiel!"

"Thought they were zombies."

Eva moaned in pain, still not standing up. Gwen rushed over to her side, inspecting the head wound. Ezekiel, struggling to breathe, stared at Alejandro more. His eyes narrowed as he inspected the smooth talker.

Ezekiel didn't remember Alejandro that well, but from what he remembered when he was stuck in the plane, he hated him. He overheard some confessionals, and remembered Alejandro bragging about using Bridgette.

"_Still, I cannot hold a grudge like that under these circumstances,_" Ezekiel thought bitterly. "_No matter what kind of a cad he was, we need to survive, and he already seems to be on the edge…_"

That's when the prairie boy noticed how badly Alejandro was injured. Zeke's eyes widened in terror when he saw those bloody injuries with more focus.

"Have," he asked as he started to stand up, "have you bin bitten, Alejandro?"

Gwen turned at Ezekiel's words. A moment in time froze up for everyone: her trying to tend to Eva, Ezekiel struggling to get to his feet, Leshawna watching on the bridge, Noah on the other side, and Alejandro staring at Ezekiel.

Gwen didn't even see Alejandro kicked Ezekiel in the stomach again, then punted the home school back. As Ezekiel screamed out in pain, Alejandro barred down on him.

Gwen launched herself at him, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him back. He twisted around and punched her in the gut, knocking her down as she tried hard to breathe, even harder to not pass out from such a blow.

Alejandro heard Leshawna scream, and then saw her rushing across the rope bridge at him. He glimpsed the katana blade she was holding, and reacted. Glancing at the thick ropes tied to the posts, he lifted up the machete and started hacking at them.

One of those ropes, the right handrail, was sliced before Gwen managed to, through sheer adrenaline, tackle Alejandro. Leshawna gripped the other handrail, the bridge dipping to the other side dangerously.

"Leshawna," Noah cried out.

Then he did the stupidest thing he had every done in his entire life, and he was partly conscious of it. He started to head down the teetering bridge, over the long drop into the rocky river, towards Leshawna.

Gwen kicked and punched at Alejandro, until he managed to shove the goth girl away from him. She was practically half his size, as far as height and girth, probably weight too. Still, she wasn't backing down, and managed to grab a large branch that had fallen from a nearby tree.

"You aren't stopping me," Alejandro snarled, heaving every breath. "You all want me to stop getting off this island, but I'm a survivor! That's what I do!"

"We don't," Gwen shouted back, "know what a bite will do-"

"You fucking think you do, you pale skank," he roared at her, spit flying from his mouth. His normally handsome, dark tan face was nearly red in his rage. "You'll try to tell the authorities, and have them put me against a wall and shoot me!"

"We aren't able to do anything, we're as helpless as you are!"

"You're right, you cannot do anything."

He pointed the machete at her. "Because I'm not going to let you. I'm going to survive, even if I have to hack off your head!"

He charged at her, swinging the machete. She leapt back, panic nearly seizing her body. He was coming at her like a madman, and she could barely defend herself. When she swung her branch at him, his machete cut it in half.

She tripped and fell back, and he lifted his machete up for a fatal blow. Managing to fight off the panic, Gwen kicked her foot up, nailing his crotch. He cringed and wobbled back as she rose back to her feet.

Noah had made it to Leshawna during this. "Move forward," he shouted at her. "She needs your help!"

Leshawna didn't answer, she stared back at Noah in primal terror as she clutched the rope bridge for dear life. Noah gripped her shoulder, and hissed, "Gwen is going to die if you don't move! We are all! Going! To DIE!"

That's when he heard the moans of those that already he had. Zombies, ones that had been hunting the two of them down throughout the forest, were heading towards the bridge at them. Noah said a lot of really foul words, shaking Leshawna's shoulder and demanding she move.

Gwen was swinging at Alejandro with her branch, him now on the defense. He started cursing at her, a mixture of English and Spanish, as she came rather close to hitting him.

Throughout this, Leshawna snapped out of her terror of the unsteady bridge. That was when about seven zombies started their way on the rope bridge, and made it shake more.

The strain was too much on the far side of the bridge. If zombies could read, they would have noticed the sign at the beginning that said that no more than four people should ever be on the bridge at once. Thus, the wooden poles that the bridge was tied to on the far end cracked from the weight.

Noah saw it, and screamed at Leshawna to hold on. When she herself noticed the bridge buckling from the side they had been traveling, she moved. Hollering at Noah to move too, she was moving as fast as she could to the other side.

The bridge broke on the far end, and thus swung down to the other side of the cliff. Zombies tumbled into the water below, smashing against rocks in the process. Leshawna was nearly at the other end as she managed to grab the wooden planks of the bridge.

The impact against the cliffside made her drop the sword, but she didn't care as she pulled herself up the bridge. It was creaking with nerve-wracking noises, only suspended by one wooden pole.

Noah was almost knocked off when the bridge slammed against the cliffside. He saw Leshawna drop the sword, and, in what felt like slow motion, he did the second stupidest thing he'd ever done. As his right hand let go of the cliff due to the impact, he reached out to grab the katana.

In proof there was a God to him, he grabbed it by the handle.

Leshawna, blinded to everything except saving Gwen, pulled herself up on solid ground. She watched Alejandro, who had gained the edge, slamming Gwen against a tree.

The impact dazed the goth girl, and she barely could see from how bad it was. But she could see Alejandro, snarling like a feral animal, closing the distance between her face and his. "You know what?" he hissed as his hand squeezed her neck. "You still smell good…"

He lunged forward, teeth at her neck. She didn't have time to seize up, barely even felt anything except hot breath on her skin there. At that moment, her body felt cold, and she realized that dark desire that she would die was going to happen.

Blood splattered all over her. She winced, feeling shooting pains in her body. Gwen's eyes widened, and then noticed Alejandro wasn't in front of her anymore.

He was reeling from the blow to the head Leshawna had given him. Blood had spurted from his, clearly broken now, nose on her.

"Get off of her, you freaking monster," Leshawna hollered. She kicked at him, knocking him back more.

"Bitch," Alejandro shouted, then managed to recover from the blows. Feral instincts and bloodlust aside, he still had his incredible flexibility and athleticism. "You're not going to have me hunted down like a dog! I'll kill you first!"

"We're not going to kill you," Gwen wheezed, trying to catch her breath.

"I'll… I'll kill you! I WILL KILL YOU!"

He lunged at Leshawna, swinging the machete like if it was a baseball bat. She backed up, almost tripping over Eva in the process. She found herself at the edge of the cliff, just as he had to pause for breath.

When they both stopped, heaving for air, he managed to look her in the eye. A cruel smile spread across his face. "I am not going to die, you fat ass bitch. I will survive this! And no one…"

He approached her, machete raised, "… is going… to stop me!"

Ezekiel jumped at him, screaming at him to stop. This alerted Alejandro, who swung back in a spinning arc. The machete struck Ezekiel in the side of the head, and he fell to the ground, bleeding.

Leshawna heard someone screaming, maybe her, maybe Zeke, as she grabbed Alejandro's arm. She kept him from swinging at her, and he attempted to head butt her. Pulling her head back, he missed as she brought his knee up to his groin. Something down there must have been damaged badly, because soon blood stained his pants.

Alejandro, snarling and heaving like a wounded animal, backed off. He grabbed his bleeding crotch, then howled in agony. With a hateful glare at Leshawna, he chased at her, swinging the machete like crazy.

"I'm going to kill you, bitch," he screamed. "You're dead, you're dead, you're-"

A steel blade poked out through his chest, coming from his back. Alejandro stared down at the sword poking through him, and heard Noah snarl from behind him, "Shut. Up."

He yanked the katana out of him, and blood shot out from the wounds, not to mention Alejandro's mouth; the sword had cut through his lung. He stumbled to the side, dropping the machete, and fell off the side of the cliff.

Noah glanced over to see him being dashed out the side, a rather painful sight. Then Alejandro landed on his back on a large rock in the river, and though he couldn't physically hear it, Noah mentally heard the manipulator's spine snap at the impact.

And the worst part of it was, that didn't kill him. It was only when he fell into the water, that the merciful grasp of death claimed Alejandro. He turned into one of the undead as he was washed down the river, and then had his once handsome face smashed into his head by a rock, crushing his brain.

Noah almost fell backwards, panting hard. He stared down at the katana, and collapsed on his hands and knees. He heaved, puking slightly. "I… I killed… I killed him… oh God."

"You did," Leshawna said, coming to his side, "what you had to do."

He glanced up at her, wincing as he wiped his mouth. She saw his jaw quiver, and he muttered, "I… still killed him."

"It was self-defense, and…"

She pulled him in for a comforting hug, until he stopped shaking. "No one will have to know."

Gwen, who had managed to recover too, stumbled over to Ezekiel. She saw the blood on his head wound, and feared to look further.

Then she heard him groan, and tried to pick himself up. "What happened?" Zeke asked. "Oh God, where's Alejandro?"

"He's dead," Gwen assured him, helping him up. "Oh, thank God, he hit you with the blunt side of the machete; we just need to get you some first-aid for that injury, you're going to be fine!"

Gwen and Zeke helped Eva up, as she groggily tried to stand on her own. Soon, she admitted defeat, and allowed Ezekiel and Gwen to help her. The three were soon joined by Noah and Leshawna, who had the katana and machete respectively.

"Gwen, girl," Leshawna said, "just… give me a minute on that hug."

"I understand."

"Please tell me you found something, maybe where that flare came from?"

"The others must be there by now, and we'll-"

Then something burst out of the woods, screaming. The five all hollered in surprise, and the something shrieked right back.

"Owen," Noah shouted. "What… the… fu-"

"You're alive!"

The big guy picked up Noah and hugged him in a wonderfully tight squeeze. "Oh, little buddy, I came back for you! But I got lost and scared and I think I tore my pants off in the process of trying to find you-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine!"

Owen looked him over after setting him down. "You… you don't look well. Do you need me to carry you?"

"No, no, I'm fine! But Eva might need help."

Eva glanced at the dirty, pants-less Owen, and muttered, "Oh… I don't care anymore." She collapsed in his arms, and thus the big guy carried her as gently as possible along with them. It was then that Leshawna and Gwen could finally have that hug, and both broke into tears.

* * *

><p>Courtney and Harold were the last ones to shower off at the marine's beach base. It had felt like a long time for both of them to shower off, both having self-conscious convictions on hygiene and health. Being splattered with contaminated blood had put both on the edge, and they had wondered how they had not had a breakdown over it by now.<p>

They were under the water for so long, Brick had to call out to them. "I don't want to rush you, but you're going to use up all the hot water, not to mention we may have to move out soon!"

"Is the boat leaving the island soon?" Courtney called out from her shower stall.

"We may, at any minute! The zombies could swarm our location, thanks to the flare we sent up a while ago. You and your boyfriend should be dressed before then!"

"He's not my…"

She never finished the sentence. Harold, who wondered she would stop _that_ mid-sentence was rather confused. Though he couldn't just peek over to see if she was okay, since he was naked, and he knew Courtney was too (and he could see her outline faintly through the stall's fabric, which made him turn the water in his stall to much colder).

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine, just fine."

"Why'd you stop mid-sentence?"

"I'm… just tired of arguing, that's all. After all this crap, I just don't want to be arguing with people."

"Wow, this all must have done a number on you," Harold said. "I always pegged you as someone who liked to argue."

A small laugh escaped her lips. "Yeah… maybe I was before all this."

They finished up, then went through the inspection by the army medics. With no injuries, they passed and dressed up. Courtney saw Harold had chosen a jacket with army camouflage, and was fiddling with the zipper.

"Here, let me help," she said, walking over. She managed to connect the zipper, which seemed infuriatingly unwilling to cooperate normally. When their eyes locked, both noticed the other was blushing.

"Gosh, um," he muttered his favorite word, "thanks."

"You seeing okay without your glasses?"

"Kind of, I think I-"

A tremendous shout outside alerted their attention. The soldiers were scrambling towards the barricade at the front, guns raised.

The alarm was caused by a soldier who had spotted a small group of teenagers running towards the camp. Brick tried to lead the six TD contestants towards the boat, but they were adamant to see if it was their friends or not.

Sure enough, it was. The five who had originally gone the other way at the campsite were running as fast as their aching legs were taking them. The soldiers pointed their guns at them, and they raised their arms in surrender. Though when they were escorted in, they were embraced by their friends.

"You made it," Izzy exclaimed, hugging DJ. Beth and Cody embraced in a hug as well, overjoyed to see the other alive. Geoff, Tyler, and Sadie also received their fair share of elated hugs and embraces.

Courtney was inspecting them, and her face dropped. "Guys, where's Duncan? And Alejandro?"

Tyler bit his bottom lip, and stepped up to deliver the news. "We don't know where Alejandro is, and Duncan…" He thought back to the punk's last words, and he felt like bursting into tears then and there. A glance over at Sadie, who still held Duncan's lighter, almost did it for him. He covered his face as he managed to say, "He didn't make it." Courtney felt like her gut was kicked in, which was amplified from all the death and difficulty they had already experienced. She almost collapsed, but Harold managed to catch her.

"We… we need to tell Gwen," Tyler asked. "Where… where is she? Guys, where's Gwen?!"

The first group barely had time to answer him before the five who just arrived were escorted over to the medical tent. Bridgette and Trent were holding each other, and Izzy tried to comfort Cody, who had also sunk into a sad state.

"I used to hate the guy," Cody admitted to her. "I resented him so much, but now that he's gone… why do I feel so bad?"

"It's because you're human."

The conversation carried on, as Brick sprinted back to his superiors, spluttering, "Sir! Sir! The five that just arrived, they said there's a huge mob of undead heading up the road! They'll be here soon!"

The captain ground his teeth in frustration. "We'll need to slow them down as much as possible… don't have time to headshot a whole murder of those things. Brick! You and some of the others are going to go slow them down!"

* * *

><p>The last thing that Gwen, or any of her friends with her, wanted now was to see Chris Maclean. The man had been foremost responsible for where they were now, the deaths of everyone who had died, and had left them to die at the first zombie attack.<p>

So when he saw them and said, "Oh good grief, you freaks are still alive? I mean, I know you can survive a lot from the show, but I would have thought you would have kicked the bucket by now," and added his sadistic laugh, it took a lot of effort for Gwen not to beat him to death.

The effort on the most part was due to Leshawna and Noah holding her back.

"I'm going to kill him," Gwen shrieked, struggling against the two. "At least let me hit him once!"

"Nice to see you too, Gwen," Chris remarked. "Seriously, is it that time of the month for you still? Zombies can smell that, maybe we should leave you behind! Heh heh!"

It was very tempting for Leshawna and Noah to let go of Gwen, and let her pound the arrogant host. Hell, they both wanted to do it too. But with Ezekiel and Eva injured, the latter barely conscious, they didn't want to risk any more conflicts.

The host was also holding a sturdy branch, and even with them being armed with blades, having to kill Alejandro had taken a lot of fire out of their fight.

"Let's all just keep heading down this road, okay?" Owen pleaded. "Come on, Chris, we all just want to go home."

The host snickered unpleasantly, glancing back at the part of the woods he had just came out of. The trek through the trees had led him to the road, and right into this group. He didn't want to be stuck with them, he knew how needy and demanding they were; he hosted the show, and they were always…

"_Chris, you changed the rules to the game with no explanation! Chris, this food you want us to meet is still moving! Chris, that challenge has a high chance of having fatal injuries involved! Chris, we want a rescue team in case the volcano erupts because you didn't pay any attention to what makes it erupt!_"

What a bunch of greedy whiners. At least if the undead attacked, they'd take forever to finish Owen.

The host nodded to the large distraction, and the group started to walk down the road in silence. Leshawna still held onto Gwen's arm, she didn't trust her friend to not lunge at Chris; after a while, both girls came to realize it was Leshawna's way of preventing herself from hitting him too.

Chris wasn't even trying to pleasant, either. Everyone deals with stress, fear, and frustration in their own ways. The host dealt with them by trying to make others feel worse than him, and it worked very well when degrading Gwen and Ezekiel.

"So you somehow survived," Chris was saying to the homeschooled boy. "That's actually impressive. Maybe there actually is cockroach in your blood, you sure as hell look like one now, Zeke."

"Will you just," Gwen snarled, "just… _please_ stop talking, Chris?"

"Hey, I'm just making observations here, rag girl," he said, shrugging and gesturing towards the road ahead of them. "We're going to be walking for a while here, and-"

"There's no cameras here," Leshawna snapped. "There's no one watching but us. We don't want to talk to you, white boy."

"Oh my, being racist now, are we?

"You'd be surprised what I am holding back on what I do want to say to you. After all you put us through, you may want to desist insulting us."

"Oh please, you of all people, I would know never hurt someone during these dangerous times!" He laughed, then tapped the side of Leshawna's head. "You know, with all the zombies around here, I cannot believe you and Owen's fat asses haven't been eaten. What's the matter, they don't like dark meat, Leshawna?"

Then someone slugged him as hard as one could, right in the gut. But it wasn't Leshawna, who had rolled her eyes and looked away. It wasn't Gwen, who was mentally counting to stop herself from screaming in outrage.

Chris fell on his knees, gasping for air. Noah stood over him, poking him in the forehead. "You know, I was never one for manners, Chris," he said, "so I have no problems hitting you while Leshawna's too good of a person to worry about the consequences."

"You… little… fu-"

Noah grabbed his hair, that precious hair that he would spend more time on than Lindsay, and made him stare up at the bookworm. "Shut. Up."

"He means it," Eva mumbled, stirring in Owen's embrace. "You don't want to know what happened to the last guy he said that too." Ezekiel shook his head, gesturing ahead of them. "Guys, please, we need to hurry, eh! In case you haven't forgotten, we're in the middle of a zombie-infested island."

"Tell that to this prick," Noah said as he let go of Chris Maclean and walked away. "He has been making this harder for us since before it began. And if he insults Leshawna one more time, he will have to pray Owen is in the mood for carrying his sorry ass…"

Noah rounded a particular sharp turn of the road, and came face-to-back with a large horde of shuffling zombies. The group had been arguing with Chris so much, they had missed the macabre symphony of their moans.

One of the zombies turned around, swiveling on its rotting foot, and saw Noah. It moaned loudly, catching the attention of several other zombies. They too turned around, as the bookworm started walking back.

"EAT HIM," Chris shouted, and pushed Noah as hard as he could towards the zombies. The bookworm stumbled, dropped his katana, and fell down on his chest.

Just as the group scrambled to try and either help Noah, retreat, or find a way to run around the zombies with such a tightly-packed forest around them, they heard shouting from the other side.

"Hey, are there people over there?" a young man's voice called out over the baying of zombies and frantic cries of the living.

"We're here, we're here," Leshawna shouted.

"GET DOWN! GET TO THE SIDES! WE'RE MOWING THEM DOWN IN THREE SECONDS!"

Noah held his head, and suddenly felt someone holding him, laying down by his side. He glanced at Leshawna, who held him tightly. Gwen was by her side, as Ezekiel led Owen and Eva to one side of the road, pressing against a tree as if it was a wall. Chris was on the side, considering bolting through the trees.

That's when assault rifle fire vibrated throughout the trees, almost amplifying the already loud noise. Zombies were hit and knocked back, limbs and heads were almost severed by the hail of bullets, and vital areas of the torso and legs, needed to walk even in death, were destroyed.

The zombies fell down to the road, the ones still standing taken out by precise headshots. The seven marines, one of them Cadet Brick, were taking careful aim at those.

Chris Maclean waved at them, laughing victoriously. "Man, it is good to see you men in green! I love you all! Recognize me?"

"Not particularly," one of the marines called back to him.

"Well, I'm Chris Maclean, famous celebrity! You all are gonna be heroes when they find out you saved me! I'll even give you a reward for all this!"

As he tried to consider if a gift certificate of twenty or thirty dollars would be good enough, the same marine replied, "Just doing our job, sir! We just want to get you and the others to safety!"

"Oh, them?" Chris said, pointing over at the six teens who were recovering, staring at the pile of zombie bodies in front of them. "They've all been bitten! Shoot them! Shoot them now!"

The host knew it was, even for him, cruel and wrong, but he couldn't take the chance: witnesses to his actions when they marooned on the island would ruin his career, not to mention he knew at least three of them were going to try to destroy him.

"We're not bitten," Ezekiel screamed, holding his hands up. "Please, doo'nt shoot!"

"Totally bitten, they'll say anything to live," Chris shouted, feigning some hysterical acting that he had used in his old acting days. He walked towards the marines, trying to step around the bodies gingerly. "Shoot 'em in the head, they're bitten and will spread the infection of whatever the hell this is!"

"Sirs," Leshawna called out, standing in front of Gwen and Noah. "We're not bitten!"

Keith, the soldier from before, raised his rifle at the teens. He glanced between Owen carrying Eva, who certainly looked in a bad enough state to have been fatally injured; Leshawna shielding Noah and Gwen, something the marines had sadly seen parents do to defend bitten family members; and Ezekiel, pleading loudly over Chris's insistence.

"We have to take care of this," Keith said to the fellow marines. "We _know_ what happens to those who get bit!"

"Everyone calm down," Brick shouted.

"You're just a cadet, you don't give orders!"

"We cannot just shoot them!"

"You have to," Chris shouted as he hurried to the marines, walking around the undead bodies. "I _saw_ them get bitten!" He could practically see his career being rescued as some of the soldiers raised their guns at the teenagers. "Shoot them, SHOOT THEM!"

"Sir, get back," Brick was hollering, "those zombies we shot!"

"Yeah, you got them, now shoot those little-"

One of the zombies lying in the street, a bullet in its chest and not in the head like required, grabbed Chris's foot. It reached in and bit into the tendon on the back. The host screamed in agony as he fell down.

The zombies, who had only been crippled and damaged by the attack as was planned, crawled to him. They bit off his digits, parts of his face, tore at his skin and hair. Chris could almost feel the bones in his arm being clenched by zombie teeth.

He thrashed, screamed for help, but no one was going to risk rescuing him… even if they wanted to. The zombies tore his stomach open, but before he went into shock, he felt them tearing into his crotch, and rip him apart down there.

The shrieks were inhuman, and barely registered mentally as a being that the teenagers knew. Even Gwen and Noah were unnerved by this, it wasn't the revenge they wanted.

When the screams finally died into death gurgles, the marines on the other side stared at the consumed host, then at the teenagers across the collection of dead bodies. "Are any of you bitten?" one shouted.

"No, we are not," Ezekiel shouted. "We're telling the truth!"

"He's right," Owen added. "Come on, guys, you cannot just leave us here! We got injured!"

Brick waved at them. "We'll head over to help you, just stay calm and don't try to cross without us!"

Keith scoffed. "Man, they really could be bitten. We have to go soon, we should-"

"You shut up," one of the other marines snapped at him. "You know the procedure, but you wanted to just shoot them. When Cadet Brick volunteered to do the hardest job, you weren't raising your hand; what, now you're comfortable with it, when you don't have to do it right in their face?"

Despite the arguing amongst them, the marines started to head towards the survivors. They shot, stabbed, and stomped on the undead in their way, making sure none could grab them.

Two marines helped Owen, who was still carrying Eva and not letting her go despite them asking to help. The trees on the side were on a steep hill, but Owen stayed close to the side to avoid as many zombies as possible.

Another marine helped Ezekiel across, and the prairie boy was rather surprised to see it was a female soldier. Luckily, she missed the slight blush on his face when she assisted him; he was really starting to develop a thing for tough women.

The majority of the soldiers were able to help Leshawna and Noah across the sea of bodies. The two saw Chris's body along the way, so mutilated that they couldn't recognize him if they hadn't seen him a mere minute ago.

Brick had gone to help Gwen, who was shaking from Chris's inhumane death. The cadet helped her up, escorting her through the pathless maze of dead bodies. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her. "You there?"

"I'm not okay, but I'm here," she managed to say.

"Good, just keep focused, we'll get you out of this-"

A zombie that the marines had missed grabbed his boot, tripping him. He twisted his foot on the way down, and the intense pain made him wince more than the impact. The zombie tried to bite his foot through the boot, but Gwen was faster.

She stomped on the zombie's head until the skull cracked. The zombie twitched violently, and lay still. Brick muttered a thanks as he tried to stand, but found his foot hurt too much.

Gwen helped him up, lending him her shoulder for support. "Come on, we cannot have you die here, hero."

"Aw, this won't look good when we get back to base," Brick managed to joke, smiling at her.

"On the contrary, I think you'll be treated as a real hero."

* * *

><p>Gwen was right. When they made it back to the marine camp, Brick's superiors praised him for his bravery despite the injury. The six survivors, along with him, were inspected and treated.<p>

Bridgette was the one to break the news of Duncan to Gwen. She gave her his lighter, saying that he would have wanted her to keep it, to remind her of him in better times. Gwen, who had helped an injured soldier and fought so many zombies, lost all her strength. She was sobbing into Bridgette's shoulder as her friend did her best to comfort her.

Eva and Ezekiel had their wounds cleaned and stitched, then they were kept under watch by the marines, in case either had been infected when they were injured. Since the signs of infection had always shown after an hour, and nothing happened, they were free to go.

One might have expected a big finale, an epic fight against a last swarm of zombies, a violent bunch of survivors, or some other disaster to make for a gripping escape. The truth was, nothing like that happened. Any zombie that had found its way to where the flare went off arrived after the boat had pulled off, taking all the survivors and marines with it.

On the sea, the former contestants found solace in each other when they weren't being talked to by the marines to account for the day's happenings. Eva and Ezekiel, who finally had received proper treatment, fell asleep in chairs next to each other; if anyone had a camera, they would have taken a photo of when Ezekiel's head rested on her shoulder in slumber.

Gwen was being comforted by Bridgette, Leshawna, and even Courtney. The goth girl kept staring at the lighter, unable to fully believe Duncan had died on the island.

"I still cannot believe he brushed you off, though," Bridgette admitted. "I wonder… no, I'm sorry, Gwen."

"I know what you're trying to say, and I understand," Gwen muttered. "Duncan… wasn't himself when he told me off, he was afraid. We all were. And even after that, I cannot hate him."

"Yes, I think it's best," Courtney said, "that we remember the good in him… I know I will. Just like maybe Alejandro?"

The group that had come in last had said that Alejandro had died out there on Kauda. They left out having to kill him, however. Gwen pursed her lips as she remembered what he had done.

Brick hobbled over to them, still trying to walk despite his fellow marines telling him to take it easy. He sat down next to Gwen, saying, "Hey, just wanted to check up on you."

"I'm okay," Gwen said, not very reassuringly. She glanced at her three friends, and managed a much more genuine smile. "I'm with my friends again. I'll be okay."

"Oh good, because I was a little worried. You looked rather upset." Brick glanced at the lighter she was holding, and asked, "I'm sorry to ask, but, did you lose someone?"

"Yes, I did."

As they conversed, Noah approached the small group. "Hey," he said, as casual as one could after such a traumatic day. "They're not going to let me keep the katana."

"Seriously, string bean?" Leshawna said with a small laugh, standing up and approaching him. "You thought they would let you keep what was, realistically speaking, stolen property?"

"Hey, the army doesn't need katanas, why do they want it? I don't see it standard Canadian military equipment, not even Japanese military equipment."

"Oh, you crazy boy, you," Leshawna guffawed.

The two looked at each other, and he scratched his arm as he started to say what he actually came over to say. "Listen, Leshawna, I just… yeah, I just wanted to apologize for being a pain in the ass along the way, annoying you so much." She gripped his shoulder. "Sugar, don't you dare apologize. I'm only alive now because of you."

"Hey, I'm only alive because of _you_, even more so!"

"Yeah, I guess your pony-loving keister would be toast without me, huh?"

"Oh, for the love of!" He threw his hands up, then let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, okay, I'll let you tease me about it. Just… just thank you, okay? For everything, Leshawna, thank you. I meant that."

"Thank you too, Noah." The two stared at each other for a few more seconds, and then kissed. Actually, both of them hadn't planned on the other doing it, Noah thought it was a proper thank you, and Leshawna had wanted to surprise him. It was a few seconds into the kiss that they realized the other one was returning it.

"Whoa," Leshawna exclaimed as they pulled back. "What… you-"

"Were you," Noah stammered. "Now that… that was my idea!"

"It was mine, string bean Brony!"

"Why you!"

The two couldn't continue the argument, over the laughter of Bridgette, Courtney, and Gwen. Now they both were embarrassed, but not in the worst way.

Kauda was now a great distance, almost on the horizon. Tyler was watching it go, thinking of Lindsay. Sadie, also thinking of Katie, couldn't bring herself to look at the island go. Instead, she took Tyler's hand for support, and he squeezed it reassuringly.

Cody and Izzy also watched the island go, her holding him from behind. He clutched her hands, and whispered, "Good-bye, Sierra. Thank you… for everything."

Geoff cast a salute out to the island, for Chef Hatchet. "Dude, I didn't get to know you," he said, "none of us really did, but I'm sure as hell we all did now. And Justin, man… I hope you're charming them in heaven now; you probably make one handsome of an angel too."

DJ and Beth cuddled up on the deck, falling asleep together after paying their respects too. Bridgette and Courtney did the same, and when Trent joined them, the surfer girl found herself closer to the musician than ever before. He held her as the two and Courtney watched Kauda disappear over the horizon.

Harold approached them, and Courtney found himself close to him again. She still didn't understand why, and neither did he, but they weren't going to mentally debate it, at least not today.

Owen, a little sea sick, was being watched over by Gwen and Brick. The large teen had found food for everyone, and, in a move that surprised them at first, he shared with everyone before he ate himself.

Gwen was still clutching the lighter, and wondered if maybe, in a romantic gesture, she should toss it in the ocean towards Kauda. But she decided against that, and thought Duncan's family might want it more. Brick stayed by her, and she found his company much more tolerable than she would have guessed a young soldier's to be.

Noah and Leshawna found themselves together again after they had checked on all their friends. The two talked for a few minutes before their energy, completely gone now, left them too tired to stay awake a minute longer.

They were asleep, holding hands, as their boat left the zombie-infested Hawaiian island far away and headed to Canada.

* * *

><p>In the weeks that followed, the infection on Kauda became public knowledge. Zombies existing shook the world, especially when reports of them popped up her and there around the globe. Hollywood tried to capitalize, of course.<p>

Eventually, a cure was discovered, as the undead infection had been contained on the island instead of ravaging the world. Thus, the world managed to get back on track with much less dread over a possible zombie apocalypse. Details of how and where the virus originated are confidential.

When the TD contestants made it back to civilization and a media _very_ hungry for details, their lives were in a huge whirlwind. The company that produced Total Drama, unable to dodge this massive bullet, had to pay huge compensation to the families of those who died, and those who lived for putting them in such a dangerous place without any support to begin with. Thus, the company, especially without Chris Maclean, went bankrupt after having to pay such massive debts.

There was a large funeral service for the ten who had died. The survivors managed to meet the families of their departed friends, and embraced each other in comfort.

Sadie knew Katie's family all her life, and had already seen them before the funeral for a more personal remembrance. Lindsay's family met with Tyler, Beth, and the blond's other friends. Even Heather's parents were there, and the former contestants managed, with some sincerity on their part, to say how sorry they were for their loss.

Justin and Sierra's families were there, and managed to meet most of the others. Sierra's mom was especially grateful to Cody, who gave a wonderful eulogy for her daughter.

Duncan's family were never told what he had done wrong on Kauda, but they were told what his last words. Gwen had tried to give them the lighter, but they insisted she keep it; they had enough to remember him by, it was hers for him.

Alejandro's family was there too, and the six who had been with him in his last minutes had tried to stay away. What he had done would never be known, but, amazingly, Ezekiel was the one to say the nicest thing about him from the contestants.

"He was put in an impossible situation, 'oot of his element, and in dire peril a'geen and a'geen," he had said to his friends. "If he hadn't bin bitten, he would never have acted like that.

"I pity Alejandro, and if he had made it, maybe he woo'd be here mourning with us, sincerely. I'd like to think that, eh."

Chef Hatchet had a brother, who the former contestants told that his little brother (yep, Chef was the younger, smaller brother) that he had died a hero. His older brother couldn't hold back the tears over this.

Blaineley was mostly recognized by the media, and her co-anchor Josh. Chris Maclean was hardly mentioned, as his deeds, especially his gross misconduct that had led the contestants to be marooned on the island, were now publicly known; he would be remembered as the horrible man he was.

After the funeral, the contestants went to go have normal lives, or at least as normal as one could. DJ and his mom restarted their show, and it did much better second time around; Beth joined the show, and soon she and the gentle giant were closer than ever. They started writing a cookbook together.

Izzy and Cody kept in touch, and she somehow found ways to go and see him, despite the distance. They managed to go to the same college together.

Owen and Geoff were more than happy to guest stars on several shows, usually as judges or contestants. Their fame and gusto got them far, helping them recover from their terrible experience on Kauda. Eventually, they started a charity to feed starving people around the world.

Tyler and Sadie kept in contact, at first just for support in their loses. Eventually, they started seeing each other, and a relationship become official when Tyler's sisters _loved_ Sadie. Though Tyler and his father had to sometimes wear ear plugs when the girls started squEEEEEEaling in delight over girly things.

Harold and Courtney had the most awkward of relations, messaging each other as casual as possible. Trent and Bridgette, who also stayed in close contact with each other, were a bit more open with how they felt about each other. Eventually, the four went to college together, but when Bridgette finally managed to get the nerd and CIT to admit their feelings instead of dodge them, it was hard to keep the two off each other.

Eva wasn't interested in a relationship, but she definitely did want to keep in contact with Ezekiel. They were in constant communication, and it was because of him that she decided to go to college. After realizing how much he had helped her, the fitness buff started to reconsider her standpoint on their friendship.

Gwen kept to herself for a while, needing some therapy to help her after the whole ordeal. Eventually, Brick came around to see her, having left the military to join fashion school. When they started working on a gothic camouflage line in joke, they realized how well their talents blended. They were the second most unusual, but wonderfully cute, couple people had seen.

And of course, Noah and Leshawna took first place in unusual but still adorable couples. Everyone they knew said how weird it was for them to date, being such opposites in so many ways. And yet, it still worked out. Imagine that.

The contestants kept in contact with each other through messages and emails, though drifted apart for the most part, aside from the relationships and closer friendships that had formed. Owen would always consider Noah one of his best friends, Bridgette was friends with too many of them to lose contact, and Izzy liked to drop in on Ezekiel from time to time.

But every year, they would all come together at a harbor, and give tribute to those that passed away. They would never let the memories of their friends die, and they'd always remember that, during the worst, they had stuck together and survived.

They all were alive today purely because of each other.

"It's always nice," Noah said, "when a zombie outbreak can bring out the best in people, despite the worst happening too."

"You getting sentimental, Brony boy?" Leshawna teased him.

"Damn right, my sugar plum, damn right."

* * *

><p><strong>The End<strong>

**In Memory of:**

Alejandro

Blaineley

Chef Hatchet

Duncan

Heather

Justin

Katie

Lindsay

Sierra

* * *

><p>No, Chris doesn't get a mention, good riddance to him. *troll grin* Though I will apologize to Alejandro fans a little, in that I may have been a little too harsh on him. Still, I would like to end on a positive note for him, but none for Chris. *troll grins again*<p>

Well, that's all for this zombie island. I have many other projects to work on, especially something else bigger, also involving zombies! CuttieArtGirl, hope you enjoyed!


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